


Stay Gold

by citation (WannaDay)



Category: Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, M/M, One Piece AU, Pirates, Superpowers, bonus chapter is coming up! :), don't worry- even if you haven't watched/read one piece you can still understand the story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-06
Updated: 2018-12-06
Packaged: 2019-09-12 02:31:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 28,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16864510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WannaDay/pseuds/citation
Summary: Daniel is an ambitious low-ranking Marine looking for a way to get a promotion. Perhaps a little too ambitious, he got lost in the wide sea and saved by the people he hates most— pirates. Seongwu the Pirate Captain took care of his wounds a little too kindly and Daniel hates it.Pirates are not supposed to be kind, hospitable, funny, and most of all— attractive.





	1. in this wide sea,

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (The summary is the prompt written by the dear prompter!)
> 
> One Piece AU.
> 
> I never thought I would combine Wanna One and my favorite manga together, but here we are.
> 
> It’s okay if you haven’t read/watched One Piece! I explain what needs to be explained throughout the story, like how the world works etc etc :)
> 
>  
> 
> I’ll explain this here though:
> 
>  ***The Grand Line:** A vast body of water that stretches all around the world. A dangerous place to be with unusual weathers and unusual things. It is said that a grand treasure called the One Piece is located somewhere in this sea.
> 
> So yeah. A lot of weird things will happen.
> 
>  
> 
> __
> 
> Here we go!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

_Wealth, fame, power._

_The man who acquired everything in the world, the Pirate King, Gol D. Roger._

_On the day of his execution, the final words that he uttered sent people to the seas._

****

**_"My wealth and treasures? If you want it, I'll let you have it. Look for it! I left it all at that one place!"_ **

_Chasing their dreams, people set out and sailed towards the Grand Line._

_And thus, the world has entered the Great Age of Pirates!_

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Daniel hated the sea.

He hated how vast it was, bringing a sense of uncertainty and making him realize just how small he was in the world.

He hated the weather that accompanied the sea, with its slight changes of temperature and humidity that foretold either a bright day or a shitty rainstorm.

He hated the sea’s horizons and how it seemed to stretch on forever and ever.

And he especially hated how the sea was _now—_ with the waves shoving his boat to and fro, the wind roaring in his ears, the heavy rain blinding him to his surroundings, and the lightning striking nearby waters and making his life flash before his eyes.

Daniel clung tightly onto the wheel, feeling his small boat tip to one side after being hit by another wave.

“Shit,” he cursed under his breath. “Shit, shit, shit.”

His clothes— the standard Marine uniforms of blue and white— were completely soaked. It being a sleeveless uniform, Daniel could see blood trickling out of a gash on his arm. He must have accidentally bumped it somewhere when he fumbled to get the boat under control.

But the wound was the least of his worries. He was stuck in the middle of a storm in the middle of the sea, all alone, on a boat that looked like it would get torn apart easily.

And he had no idea how he was going to get out of there alive.

“Damnit.” Daniel knew he had lost control of everything nearly an hour ago. Lightning had hit the sails, setting it on fire but quickly being doused by the rain. Not that the sails were going to be of much help— the wind was making things impossible anyways.

He glanced left and right, staring at the horizons. They were empty underneath the gray clouds.

But Daniel was still determined. Or more like he was forcing himself to be determined. He could get through this. He just had to hang on until the storm subdued. _Yeah. That should work._

Just when he was pulling on a reassuring smile for himself, he was struck by lightning.

Not directly— but the lightning was close enough to sound like an explosion in his ears, to throw him onto his back, to make him lose consciousness in just a few seconds.

Sprawled over the deck and facing the sky above, Daniel could only think, _Ah. So this is how I’ll go._

The last thing he remembered was the rain falling all over him.

Then everything went black.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Daniel would have liked to dream.

It would have been nice to dream of happy things before the storm completely overtook him. If he could choose, he would have liked to dream of his hometown— bright, peaceful at most times, with his mother waiting for him at home with his favorite snacks.

But instead, life decided to have Daniel remember the events that preceded him getting stuck in the storm.

And he could count the mistakes he made. One by one.

Daniel remembered being at the Marine outpost. His uniform was still clean and tiny, not ripped by the wind, and he even had his cap on.

His best friend Jisung was next to him, leaning against the wall as they eavesdropped.

They were in a hallway leading to the communications room. Jisung had suggested they leave before getting caught— a low ranking Marine (such as Kang Daniel) weren’t allowed in that area. But Daniel had used his effective, pleading puppy eyes on Jisung, and Jisung eventually gave in.

That was Daniel’s first mistake. Maybe he shouldn’t have been eavesdropping and breaking rules in the first place.

He heard voices coming from the room, one of them loud enough to easily reach his ears.

_“The Hourglass Pirates have been spotted nearby an island—”_

_“Affirmative. We got the coordinates. We’ll send a fleet after them.”_

_“Is a fleet necessary?”_

_“For these guys? Yes.”_

Jisung had grabbed onto his arm, his voice low. “Daniel, we really need to go now.”

“Did you hear that, hyung?” Daniel whispered. “Those pirates are near. Really near. If we’re fast enough, we could actually capture them this time.”

“We’ll probably be sent on that fleet to go after them. But first, let’s just get out of here—”

“You won’t get in trouble, hyung. You’re a Lieutenant. You’re allowed to be here.”

“Yes, but _you_ aren’t. I don’t want to see _you_ getting into trouble.”

Mistake number two was not listening to Jisung’s warning, after the older man had reprimanded him for the umpteenth time.

“Hyung, listen to me,” Daniel urged, hands shaking in excitement. “It’ll take too long if we wait to leave on that fleet. It gives the pirates too much time for a head start. They could be gone by the time we get there.”

Jisung was glancing down the hallway, as if afraid someone would pop out and run in their direction. “Yes, and...?”

“It would be much quicker if a single boat goes out to chase them. Right now. We just need a small crew of about five of the strongest people—”

“Daniel, I don’t have the power to give that order.”

“How about just the both of us then?”

“Daniel, I also have my responsibilities here... My men to lead... And honestly, it’s too risky and sudden. Let’s just go along with the orders, okay?”

That was Daniel’s third mistake: not listening to Jisung’s subsequent warnings.

“Okay, then,” the younger man said.

Jisung blinked, surprised that Daniel had given up so easily. “Okay?”

“Okay,” Daniel repeated.

 

 

 

Fourth mistake: actually going along with his crazy plan.

He felt bad about lying to Jisung. After all, Jisung had taken good care of him ever since forever. Coming from the same island, they had decided to find a future in the Marines. It was supposed to be a turning point in their lives, where they would serve bravely for years, and return home one day with their heads held high.

Daniel knew it wasn’t going to be easy. It wasn’t an easy job— the road would be rough and bumpy, for sure.

But what he didn’t expect was for Jisung to shoot up the ranks while he himself stayed static. Jisung was an amazing person— he was caring and responsible. He deserved all the promotions and Daniel was immensely proud of him.

He was happy for his friend, but he couldn’t help but feel disappointed with himself. He worked hard, tried his best. It was already over a year since he and Jisung joined the Marines. And Daniel had nothing to show for it.

 _“They’re afraid of your capabilities,”_ Jisung had once told him. _“They’re afraid of your potential, of what you’re capable of doing. They’re afraid what would happen if they gave you a little bit of power.”_

Jisung was too nice sometimes. Daniel knew his friend was saying that just to make him feel better.

 _Capabilites,_ Daniel thought to himself, as he snuck out into the docks, all by himself. _What capabilities?_

The sea was already churning by then. It was, after all, well in the night. Not a good time to go sailing, especially on your own. But he had learned how to both man a ship and navigate— he could do this.

It wasn’t a piece of cake. There were a few guards on the docks but in the end, he managed to get ahold of a small ship through the combined efforts of his sneaking and lying skills.

He would justify his actions by capturing the pirates and bringing them back— _dead or alive—_ to the base.

Before setting out, he spared one glance over his shoulder.

It was a small outpost. He and Jisung were only stationed there for several days, but Daniel _knew..._  He _knew_ that it was a stroke of luck that infamous pirates just happened to be nearby. Maybe it was fate. Whatever it was, he was going to take this opportunity no matter what.

But a little part of him kept saying _this is a bad idea._

He ignored it.

Fifth mistake. And it was also his last chance of stopping whatever he was doing.

He unfurled the sails and felt the ship shift beneath his feet. He brought nothing but a bag of equipment and the clothes on his back.

With determination, he set out. And with determination, he planned to return proudly.

And boy, was he wrong.

 

 

 

Oh, but he _did_ dream.

After remembering his mistakes one by one, he dreamt of home.

But he dreamt of it during its worst times.

He remembered hearing crashes and screams, remembered people running in panic and others wielding swords and firearms.

It was supposed to be a peaceful little town. But that day was far from peaceful.

It was the day when pirates decided to raid that little town that he cherished so much.

Daniel remembered how his lungs felt like they were on fire as he ran as fast as he could to his house. All he could think about was his mother, who he knew would be home at that time.

He was still in his early adolescent years and he had yet to learn how to properly fight. But he had clutched onto a small dagger that was lying on the ground. Maybe it belonged to one of the pirates. He didn’t know. He didn’t care. He just needed _something._

The moment he reached home, saw the door completely swung open, his heart dropped. He ran inside, dagger at the ready.

And what he saw made his vision blurry, made the blood roar in his ears, and he could barely think when he rushed forwards, brandishing the weapon and yelling, _“Get away from her!”_

His mother was by the window. And right next to her was a _pirate_. Daniel could tell from the clothes— could tell by the firearms that the stranger had in his belt.

The pirate whirled around to face him. He was tall, big, and bulky— much bigger than Daniel. He should have looked scary, ominous, and terrifying.

But Daniel lunged anyways.

He must have caught the pirate by surprise. With a gasp, the pirate dodged the attack, stumbling and taking a few steps back. Daniel ran to his mother, putting himself between her and the pirate, holding the dagger out threateningly to the unknown man in front of him.

The pirate stared at him for a solid ten seconds. It was as if the world had stopped.

Then, with the ends of his coat being the last thing Daniel saw, the pirate left. Just like that, he dashed out the doors and Daniel never saw him again.

His mother was unharmed. She had wrapped her son in a hug, telling him that she was okay. That everything would be okay.

But it scared Daniel every time he thought of what might have happened if he had not reached home in time.

 

 

 

After the short dream— the short dream of a memory— Daniel slipped in and out of consciousness a couple times.

He felt arms around him, strong yet thin arms, before being set on what felt like wood against his back. He still felt the rain against his face before darkness overwhelmed him again.

Other times he would hear voices, but they were all muffled in his foggy mind.

And afterwards, he would open his eyes to a blurry world, a bright light above him, before he shut his eyes yet again.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

Daniel eventually woke up with a jolt.

Light filled his vision again. He blinked a few times, barely able to see anything through the blurriness.

He heard voices again, but this time he could make out the words that were being said.

“Oh, he’s waking up. Daehwi, could you please tell the captain that the prisoner’s awake? I’ll stay here to make sure this guy’s not going anywhere.”

“Sure, hyung.”

“Thanks.”

Daniel groaned. He tried and failed to move his arms, his legs, _anything_. He was lying down on a bed— he could at least tell that from the soft fabric underneath his fingers.

Feeling numb and weak, he had no choice but to wait.

He could hear footsteps arriving in his direction. Another voice joined the previous ones.

“Yo, captain.”

“Thanks, Jaehwan. I’ll take it from here.”

“You sure you’ll be okay by yourself?”

There was a soft chuckle. “Don’t worry about me.”

“Alright then.”

More footsteps that soon disappeared.

After a few more seconds of panic beginning to rise at the back of his throat, Daniel’s vision finally sharpened— the blurriness gone.

In front of him was a familiar face. Not familiar in the sense that they had met before— because they most definitely have _not_ crossed paths even once— but familiar because Daniel had seen the same face on countless bounty posters, saw the name of the person along with the price of his head.

This was the face of a notorious criminal. Of the person who Daniel was looking for in hopes of capturing and handing him over to the Marines.

Sitting right in front of him was Ong Seongwu, the Pirate Captain.

 

 

 

 

For a split second, Daniel processed it all, his mouth slightly open in shock.

“Look who finally decided to wake up,” Seongwu was saying, a grin on his face.

His survival instincts finally kicked in. Daniel sat up almost immediately, fighting the numbness in his body. And almost immediately, he fell back, clutching at his temple which had begun hurting like crazy.

“I’d take it easy if I were you,” Seongwu said calmly. “I think you bonked your head on something. You were knocked out for around two days.”

“Shut up, _pirate,_ ” Daniel spat. His voice felt hoarse, and his throat burned. He realized he was thirsty as hell.

 _Two days?_ Daniel felt his heart starting to bang against his chest. The Marines must have aborted their mission of capturing the pirates after seeing the storm. Jisung was probably worried sick about him. Daniel would have to find a way to contact him somehow.

Seongwu held up his hands, looking unfazed. “Whoa whoa, calm down. You know, I would have expected a little bit of gratitude. I _did_ save your life and all.”

“You— You what—”

“And I tended to your wounds.” Seongwu put his hands down, gesturing towards Daniel. “My crew has a doctor, but he had to take care of my wounded crewmates first. That was one hell of a storm, and some of my crewmates got hurt. So I thought that I’d help the injured Marine guy, because he was bleeding all over and all. I learned a thing or two from the good doctor, so I thought I’d put my knowledge to good use.”

While the pirate talked, Daniel glanced at his own body. It was then that he realized that he wasn’t wearing a shirt— exposing his chest which was all covered in bandages. His arms, which were bleeding the previous night, were also wrapped up in bandages as well.

He looked down and nearly breathed out a sigh of relief when he realized that he was at least wearing pants. They were long, unfamiliar black pants— meant for someone with a smaller waist.

But the fact that he was no longer wearing his Marine uniforms meant that somebody _changed_ his clothes for him—

Daniel glanced at the pirate, feeling the blood rush to his face.

He must have had a scandalized look on his face, because Seongwu suddenly said, “Don’t jump to any conclusions—”

“I swear if you touched me even _a little bit—”_

“Your clothes were ruined and I _had_ to treat your wounds. That’s all I did. Calm _down._ ”

Breathing hard, Daniel tried his best to sit up again. Feeling like his head split open, he flopped back onto the bed.

Seongwu then proceeded as if nothing happened. “Anyways, me and my crew were caught in the storm too. It tossed us off course and we saw a boat in the distance. We saw that someone was in danger, so we decided to save him. Me and my crewmate got to you before the storm did. Right now, your boat’s probably at the bottom of the sea though.”

“Why the hell would you save me?”

The questioned seemed to confuse Seongwu. “Why wouldn’t we?”

“You’re— You’re all _pirates.”_

“Uh-huh. And we saw someone in trouble, so we helped them. By the way, were you lost at sea or something?”

The blood rushed to Daniel’s face again. The truth was, yes, he had set out on that ship but lost his way shortly afterwards. He realized that navigating and manning a ship all alone, especially at night, was a lot more difficult than he thought. Not to mention that this was the _Grand Line_ , after all, with its abnormal and sudden weathers. Soon after that, the storm hit. And here he was now.

He didn’t answer. But Seongwu let out a hum and a nod.

“Anyways, allow me to introduce myself.”

“I know who you are, pirate.”

“Oh?”

“Captain of the Hourglass Pirates, Ong Seongwu, who has committed various crimes all across the Grand Line.” Daniel hoped that venom dripped from his words, mirroring his hatred of the man in front of him. “You’ve caused too much trouble and don’t think you can enjoy your freedom any longer.”

“Are you here to capture me?” Seongwu asked with a smirk.

Daniel bit his lip, almost blurting out “yes”.

“All by yourself?”

Daniel stayed silent.

“Well, remember that you’re in my ship right now and that you’re still wounded. It’ll be pretty hard to capture me. Speaking of your wounds...” Seongwu then leaned over, placing a hand on Daniel’s bandaged arm.

Daniel pulled his hand away. “Don’t touch me.” He then immediately regretted doing so— a sting of pain had travelled up his arm.

“We need to change your bandages to clean ones,” Seongwu explained. “Then you need to eat something. You were out for two days, so I’m pretty sure you’re starving.” He then reached for an object underneath the bed, setting it on his lap. It was what looked to be a medical kit. “Now can you please stay still?”

Daniel continued to stare at him, feeling uneasy but knowing no other way around it. He thought that if Seongwu wanted to kill him before, he would have already done it. So he did what Seongwu asked him to— which was staying still while the pirate took care of his wounds.

Seongwu worked in silence, his face lost in concentration as he removed the old bandages and wrapped the clean ones around Daniel’s wounds. Keeping his guard up by not taking his eyes off the pirate captain, Daniel found himself examining Ong Seongwu up close.

Daniel had seen Seongwu’s bounty poster a lot. On the poster was a picture of Seongwu smirking in a playful way, holding up a middle finger in the direction of the camera. And on that finger was a small flame. Of course Seongwu would be showing off his powers like that.

Daniel remembered how a group of female Marines had sighed as they looked at the picture. One of them had said, “Look at that handsome face. It’s a shame that he’s a pirate.” The others had nodded, agreeing. "And he's still so young. What a shame." More nods. Seongwu, after all, was only a year older than Daniel.

But now, with Ong Seongwu right in front of him, Daniel could see that the photo did no justice. He hated to admit it— hated to _so much_ — but Seongwu was much more handsome in person.

Seongwu had jet black hair that sometimes fell over his eyes. He would brush it back sometimes when they got in the way, and Daniel found himself staring at the pirate captain’s eyes.

Daniel then stopped his train of thoughts. He shouldn’t be thinking about how good-looking this guy was. Seongwu was a freaking _pirate,_ after all.

Seongwu, on the other hand, didn’t seem to notice Daniel’s stares. He was too focused on dressing the wounds. With a cotton ball, he dabbed something onto Daniel’s arm, causing the Marine to let out a tiny hiss of pain.

“Sorry. It’s ointment for the wound.”

“It better be,” Daniel mumbled.

He then glanced down, not wanting to look at the other man’s face. Bad idea.

Along with pants that reached his knees, Seongwu wore a shirt that wasn’t buttoned too well, revealing slightly tanned skin. It was quite distracting.

“There we go,” Seongwu said, giving Daniel’s arm a light pat. “Good as new. Also, here. You need to drink.”

Daniel cautiously stared at the water bottle that Seongwu held out for him. The pirate must have noticed because he let out a sigh, removed the cap, and took a huge sip from the bottle.

Wiping his lips with the sleeve of his shirt, Seongwu held it out again. “See? It’s not poisoned.”

Daniel had to swallow his pride. He couldn’t believe he was being aided by a pirate. But he felt Seongwu’s arm on his back, carefully helping him sit up.

After taking a few sips, Daniel started chugging the whole thing down. He felt the relief flood over his body, felt the burning in his throat disappear.

He handed Seongwu the empty bottle, who took it with a smile.

“Well?” Seongwu asked.

“Well what?”

“Am I going to get a thanks?”

Daniel almost did. But he remembered his hometown, remembered the anger that filled him up, so he swallowed the words of _thank you_ and kept silent.

Seongwu let out a chuckle. “Wow, you’re stubborn.”

“I can’t trust a stranger that easily,” Daniel decided to say.

“Hmm. You make a fair point. You’re a stranger to me too, though.”

“You never said you trusted me either.”

“Another fair point. I don’t even know your name.”

“Daniel.”

“Hm?”

He owed at least a name. “I’m Daniel.”

There was a slight silence before a smile broke out on Seongwu’s face. Daniel tried not to think about how bright it was.

“Well, Daniel. Let’s go get some food.”

 

 

 

Daniel met the crew soon after that.

They were a group of unique and bizarre individuals. But before even meeting them, he was surprised by how weird the ship itself was.

It was a caravel ship— not a humongous one, but it was pretty big and spacey inside. He passed at least six doors which he guessed were bedrooms. He had thought that pirates slept in hammocks.

They had passed these corridors with Seongwu not staying far from him, as if ready to catch him anytime he fell (he had offered to let Daniel lean on him for support, but Daniel quickly refused).

It was weird how Seongwu let Daniel walk around like this. Before, Daniel only knew the exterior of the Hourglass Pirates’ ship. He only knew what it looked like in pictures— a big but not large vessel adorned with a pirate flag, with a figurehead in the shape of a seal. The wooden seal had a rather playful smile, three dots on the left side of its face to resemble the captain of the ship who also had a constellation on his cheek.

But now Daniel was inside and he had fairly memorized the layout of the ship— already planning things in his head.

Seongwu was being too hospitable. And perhaps that would be his downfall.

And at the same time, Daniel made sure to keep himself on guard. He was in a big mess right now— he knew that. Seongwu’s act of kindness may have been just a mask before he did something bad. Maybe Danie was being taken to the crew for an execution. A chill went down his spine at the thought. His body was still aching all over, but he felt himself regaining strength with each step. He would be able to defend himself— or at least go down trying.

They passed a row of windows, weak sunlight streaming in. It was probably well in the evening, nearly night time.

After climbing a set of stairs, they made it to the deck, which surprised Daniel even more.

There was what seemed to be a large patch of grass all over the deck. Upon closer inspection, Daniel saw that it was a carpet of artificial grass. On the carpet was a long wooden table, where a group of boys were heaping the surface with food and drinks.

All over the deck were more boys— some appeared to be around his age while some appeared to be a lot younger. Two of them were near the ship’s railings, holding fishing poles while chatting. An innocent-looking young boy was holding a katana and swung it through the air, practicing his footwork. Daniel glanced up and saw someone seated at the crow’s nest, keeping watch.

Then Seongwu said, “Yo, guys.” And it was then that Daniel felt nearly a dozen pair of eyes glancing in his direction.

The boys at the table glanced up first, then the ones near the railing did the same after ending their chat in an abrupt halt.

“Our Marine buddy here just regained consciousness,” Seongwu said cheerfully. “His name’s Daniel. Everyone, say hi.”

A heavy silence fell on the deck. All that could be heard was the sound of waves lapping against the ship’s sides.

Then all hell broke loose as everyone spoke at once.

“Say what?”

“Seongwu, what are you—”

“Whoa, his legs are really long!”

“Captain, is this really okay?”

“I thought he was going to stay in the guest room till we reached the next island—”

“Shouldn’t we cuff him? What if he attacks?”

While Daniel tried not to freak out by the barrage of rather concerning information, Seongwu held up his hands with a laugh. “Guys, guys! It’s fine. Really. Let’s all be nice now.”

The questions died down. Some let out sighs— as if used to Seongwu’s antics. Then they mumbled cautious words of _hello_ and _nice to meet you._ And just like that, they went back to their activities. Some boys, on the other hand, decided to approach Daniel.

“Ah,” Seongwu said, throwing his arm around a crewmate with plump cheeks and messy red hair. “This here is Jaehwan. He watched over you sometimes when you were unconscious.”

Daniel was about to say _I know his name_ but stopped himself. In fact, he knew all of the crewmates’ names. He was an ambitious Marine, after all, having memorized as many pirates’ faces and names as he could. He lost count of how many hours he spent poring over bounty posters and any information he could get his hands on. He thought that maybe one day— _one day—_ he would find one of those pirates and he would be able to capture them. And then he would be able to get his promotion, to rise in ranks.

It would all be worth it in the end... right?

Jaehwan was staring at him curiously, blinking a few times. He finally said, “The captain almost drowned when he was saving you.”

Seongwu coughed. “Now, now, Jaehwan—”

“Seongwu-hyung can’t swim but he went out of his way to rescue a Marine stuck in the middle of the sea.” Jaehwan crossed his arms, staring at Daniel with an intense gaze.

Daniel tried to think of the best way to answer. “I—”

Just then the pirates near the railing called him over. _“Jaehwan-hyung! We caught something!”_

Jaehwan yelled back, “Coming!” But he gave Daniel one final stare before heading back to his friends.

Just when Daniel thought he had time to breathe, a man suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

 _Literally_ out of nowhere. One second, Daniel was looking at empty air. Another second later, a short man materialized right in front of him.

Daniel screamed, instinctively throwing a punch.

His fist was caught immediately by the short man, who had a cheerful smile on his face.

Seongwu let out a whine. “Don’t sneak up on people, Sungwoon-hyung!”

Still easily holding onto Daniel’s fist, just inches from his face, Sungwoon let out an amused laugh. “He’s strong! Looks like he’s got his strength back already. Looks like he gets scared easily too.”

 _Of course,_ Daniel thought, willing his heart to calm down. He tried to tug his hand away, but Sungwoon held it tightly. _A couple of these pirates are cursed with unhuman abilities._

“Hyung, stop teasing him.”

Sungwoon let out another chuckle before releasing Daniel’s hand. He then glanced at the bandages all over Daniel’s body, giving an approving nod. “I’m the doctor, by the way. I taught Seongwu a couple of things and I gotta say, he did a good job.” He then turned towards the captain. “Good job, Seongwu.”

“Thanks, hyung.”

“Well, Daniel, you should have some food. You look famished.” With another smile, Sungwoon jogged towards the table.

“Come on,” Seongwu said. “He’s right. You need to eat.”

 

 

 

It was the weirdest meal Daniel ever had.

While eating, Seongwu introduced Daniel to his crewmates, one by one. Of course, Daniel knew them all. The Hourglass Pirates consisted of 9 people— the captain and his crew. Some of them waved and smiled, some grunted out their responses. One person especially caught Daniel’s attention— and that was because that certain person held a katana against Daniel’s throat.

“Jihoon, don’t threaten him while he’s trying to eat,” Seongwu said with a tired sigh.

“I don’t trust him,” the young boy— Jihoon— said. He gripped tighter onto the sword, and Daniel felt the tip of the blade just a few centimeters away from his neck. “What if he’s giving out our location to the Marines right now?”

“He doesn’t have anything on him,” Seongwu explained. “No means of communication. Nothing. He was shipwrecked in a storm. And we’re going to help him.”

“Right,” Daniel said, almost breathing out the word, being as still as possible. All it would take was one swing of the sword and he’d be a goner.

Jihoon glared at him before eventually lowering the blade. “If I see you doing anything even remotely suspicious...” He didn’t finish the sentence. After sheathing the sword, he turned his attention back to his food.

Seongwu sipped on a glass of water. “You okay, Daniel?”

“Yeah.” Daniel rubbed at his neck. “I’m fine.”

 _No,_ he thought. _I’m screwed._

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

Daniel couldn’t sleep that night.

After dinner, everyone headed to their respective rooms. Daniel had questioned Seongwu about what they were planning to do with him, and Seongwu just smiled and said that it could wait till morning. _For now, just get some rest_ , he said.

 _How fucking ominous,_ Daniel had thought in his head.

So Seongwu had guided him back to the guest room— the same room that Daniel had woken up in. Daniel had expected that people were going to keep watch over him, but he was proven wrong. There was nobody even keeping an eye on his door.

He found this out after lying wide awake in bed for what felt like hours. He had tried the door, expecting it to be locked, but it swung open with the slightest turn.

The corridor was empty.

 _What the hell?_ he thought. Were the pirates really this lax? This careless?

Whatever it was, he took the opportunity. There was no way he was going to shut his eyes. Not in this pirate ship. Not when any one of them could easily kill him in his sleep.

He slipped out into the corridor, recalling each step and turn till he reached a familiar flight of stairs.

Bracing himself for the cold, he stepped out onto the deck. A cold night wind blew at him instantly, and he gritted his teeth, enduring it. He was already wearing a shirt over his bandages— a shirt that Seongwu had given him a few hours ago— but it didn’t do much to protect him from the cold.

His surroundings were dark. He could barely make out anything but he quickly scanned the deck. After seeing no one in sight, he breathed out a tiny sigh of relief.

He then glanced up at the ship’s main mast and the crow’s nest that hung there. It was quite big and he would be able to see everything below and around him.

After a moment’s thought, he ran towards the mast. If the pirates had any plans of getting rid of him, he might as well hide somewhere— most preferably a place that would take some time to find him. There was a stray fishing rod on the ground and he scooped it up. If he had to fight, he could at least use something other than his fists.

Climbing the crow’s nest was a difficult feat, but he succeeded somehow. It was even bigger once inside, with enough room for him to stretch his legs. There was nothing there except two tightly shut crates. He decided not to risk opening them, not knowing what was inside. He leaned against the hard wood of the crow’s nest, letting himself catch his breath.

It was even higher than expected. He could use the height to his advantage if a pirate attempted to apprehend him.

But the wind felt even harsher up here. He bore with it for a while, telling himself that this was nothing, but soon his teeth began to chatter, body beginning to shiver.

 _Well,_ he thought. _This is going to be a long night._

Trying to distract himself from the cold, Daniel tilted his head up to look at the sky. There was a full moon and countless stars around it. He looked for familiar constellations, hoping that maybe he’d get a slight sense of where he was.

It didn’t help. He was in the Grand Line, after all. Things simply didn’t make sense here.

Maybe it was the helplessness of the situation— but Daniel realized a few things. Perhaps he had realized it ever since he left the Marine outpost, but his whole plan had been a complete disaster. Did he actually think he would be able to capture a whole crew of pirates all by himself? Perhaps desperateness had clouded his judgment, or a stabbing burst of emotion had engulfed him at that time.

But now here he was, shouldering the consequences of his blinded actions. And now, he could only focus on surviving the night.

Then he heard something. He barely noticed it at first, but as seconds passed, he was sure of it.

_Somebody was climbing the mast towards him._

Clutching onto the fishing rod, Daniel got ready to swing. What if it was the scary kid with the katana? Or maybe the invisible guy?

But instead, it was Ong Seongwu.

The pirate captain reached the top, locking eyes with the Marine.

“Are you here to take over my shift?” Seongwu asked. When Daniel didn’t answer, he climbed onto the crow’s nest. “Just kidding. Well it _is_ my shift anyways so I guess you could keep me company. Were you _actually_ going to hit me with a fishing rod?”

As Seongwu drew near, Daniel clutched tightly onto his weapon. He began to lower it when Seongwu calmly took a seat next to him.

“Are you feeling better?” Seongwu inquired. “It must have been hard climbing the mast with your injuries.”

A silence followed. The truth was, Daniel’s whole body was aching from the climb. But he wasn’t going to show weakness in front of a pirate.

Seongwu wasn’t disheartened. “So what are you doing all the way out here?” he asked. After a pause, he added, “Or should I say, all the way _up_ here?”

Eye contact seemed so easy for Seongwu, looking straight at Daniel. It made the younger man feel weird and a little uneasy.

“How do I know none of you are planning to kill me while I’m asleep?” Daniel then muttered.

“Why in the world would we do that?” Seongwu said with a small chuckle. He leaned against the wall of the crow’s nest, making himself comfortable. He was staring at Daniel with a thoughtful look.

Seconds passed. Seongwu then held out his hand, causing Daniel to flinch and go right into battle mode.

But Seongwu didn’t attack him. The pirate’s hand stayed right there, between himself and Daniel, palm facing the sky.

And then Seongwu’s hand burst into flames, causing Daniel to let out a short-lived scream that he quickly swallowed.

Fire was licking Seongwu’s fingers, his palm completely covered by a ball of flame. Calm gaze unwavering, Seongwu breathed out and watched as the fire grew larger.

Daniel should have been terrified. He had heard about the power that the captain of the Hourglass Pirates possessed. He was one of those cursed people who had consumed a Devil Fruit— a cursed fruit that granted him bizarre powers but with the expense of not being able to swim for the rest of his life. If he were to touch the sea, he would immediately become weak and sink like a rock. It was a weakness for everyone like him.

But the weakness paled in comparison to the powers that were gained. Daniel heard stories of people being able to shift into animal-like beasts, of people being able to turn their bodies into all sorts of elements—

And Seongwu had the power of fire. Not only could he create fire out of nowhere, but he could control it and even become the said element according to his will. Daniel had heard about people’s encounters with the pirate captain— how he shot flames from the tips of his fingers, how he could turn into fire (thus resulting in physical attacks passing right through his body), and how he had even burned down an entire fleet of Marine ships.

His powers were deadly. _Ong Seongwu was deadly._ And thus, Daniel knew that he should have been terrified. He had dropped the fishing rod in surprise at the first sight of flames.

But Seongwu just smiled brightly at him and said, “You looked like you were freezing. So here you go.”

He let the fire grow a little bigger, scooting a bit closer to Daniel.

At a loss for words, Daniel just stared at the flame and then at Seongwu. It was warm— both the fire and the expression on Seongwu’s face. As if the chilliness of the night was chased away.

Not able to hold himself back, Daniel leaned a bit closer to the fire. Shoulder brushing against the pirate captain’s, Daniel held out his hands. He felt the heat on his palms that hovered just a few inches from the fire. He forgot about the cold almost immediately.

“Better?” Seongwu asked.

“Yeah,” Daniel said. He then bit his lip. He wasn’t supposed to show his gratitude like this.

Seongwu’s grin grew. “Good to hear.”

“Why did you become a pirate?”

The question slipped out of Daniel. He had always been curious— not about Ong Seongwu in particular, but to all the fools that set out to the sea underneath a pirate flag. They were all hopeless wanderers with hopeless dreams. Daniel never understood them.

The smile slightly faded from Seongwu’s face as he thought about the question. But it lingered on his lips— as if thinking about the answer brought some sort of joy in him.

“To search for the One Piece, of course,” Seongwu said. There was no wavering in his voice. He answered with a strong and firm voice, showing the other man how sure he was of his answer.

Daniel let out a scoff.

Looking slightly offended but still smiling, Seongwu leaned in a little, his gaze intense. “And what’s wrong with me and my crew searching for the One Piece?”

“You actually believe it exists?” Daniel wanted to laugh. “Gol D. Roger’s wealth and treasures that he called the _One Piece_ , that he claimed to have left at a certain but unknown location... You guys _actually_ believe it’s out there somewhere?”

Seongwu continued to stare at him.

“It’s all a lie,” Daniel finished.

He expected an outburst. Or perhaps Seongwu would attack him after all for mocking his dreams.

But Seongwu just looked at him, gaze softening. With an equally soft tone, the pirate captain simply said, “We all have our own beliefs.”

Now Daniel _really_ wanted to laugh. Wanted to throw his hands up in exasperation. But he stayed silent, letting the warmth of the fire wash over his body.

“Why did you become a Marine?” Seongwu asked.

The question caught Daniel off guard. He did not expect being questioned in return.

But he answered confidently. “Because I want to help and protect people. That’s what the Marines do. It’s an honorable job.” _And to catch bad guys like you_ , he finished in his head.

“You have good intentions,” Seongwu said. “And how’s life as a Marine so far?”

“And why would I answer you?”

“Because I’m curious.”

“I’m not comfortable with sharing my life’s story with a pirate. And I don’t see you telling me about your little pirating adventures either.”

Seongwu did a slight pout. Daniel felt his heart bang a little against his chest, though he did not know why.

“My stories, huh...” Seongwu muttered. Then he shrugged. “Well, I’m from an island far away from the Grand Line. I was born and grew up in a little island in the East Blue. When Gol D. Roger died and the Age of Pirates began, I sailed out to sea.”

It seemed as if Ong Seongwu would never stop surprising him. Here he was, sharing information about himself to Daniel.

The East Blue was a sea outside of the Grand Line. Which meant that Seongwu left the comfort of a safer place to travel to the Grand Line— a place where danger awaits at every corner.

Daniel himself was born in the Grand Line. He never had the luxury of living in the other seas or even exploring them. But ever since the Great Age of Pirates began, the Grand Line had become a much more dangerous place to be. To think that people willingly went there in hopes of an unknown treasure... It made Daniel want to question Seongwu even more.

“And, well...” Seongwu was smiling again. “The journey’s been awesome so far.  Me and my crew’s been to many places that we wouldn’t have gotten to if it weren’t for our shared goal of reaching the One Piece. Would you like to hear about those places?”

Seongwu took Daniel’s following silence as a yes.

“The Grand Line is crazy, isn’t it?” Seongwu said with a chuckle. “We see things that are beyond our imagination. Things that define our concept of reality. And even when we think that we’ve gotten used to the strangeness of things, something else would pop up and surprise us.”

Daniel almost nodded. It was true that he himself never had the chance to venture to many places in the Grand Line, but from the places that he _had went to,_ he could vouch that the Grand Line truly was weird.

Seongwu’s eyes were bright, and his gaze looked as soft as ever. Maybe it was due to the glow of the fire. “There’s a snowy island with tall, drum-shaped mountains. A castle sits atop the highest mountain. It used to be home to a terrible ruler. But that ruler was overthrown, and the island has been doing much better now.”

“Drum Island,” Daniel said. He had heard about it and saw pictures of the island.

“Yeah, that’s the name!” Seongwu looked happy at Daniel’s response. “Another thing that I remember clearly from Drum Island is the giant rabbits there. They have large arms ready to pummel you to the ground if you pissed them off!”

“I’ve seen them in photos,” Daniel said.

“They’re cute rabbits, aren’t they? Very deadly though.” Seongwu chuckled. “That’s one of the islands me and my crew went to. It’s funny to see an island in which snow never stops falling... and then going to another island where snow never falls. After Drum Island, me and my crew went to Alabasta. Now _that_ island... it’s literally a desert kingdom. The sun never stops shining mercilessly, and while we were walking across the seemingly endless sand dunes, one of my crewmates started seeing mirages. It was _that_ hot and tiring.”

The stories had piqued Daniel’s interest. He tried not to show it though. He then remembered that Seongwu and his crew had caused _a hell lot of trouble_ in the mentioned islands, especially Alabasta. He felt the contempt all over again.

“Have you ever seen dinosaurs, Daniel?”

Daniel blinked in surprise. “What?”                                 

“Dinosaurs. They’re still alive till this day.” Seongwu was doing enthusiastic gestures with his fireless hand. “On an island called Little Garden, dinosaurs roam and thrive there. The whole island’s a big jungle with one volcano that erupts every hour. And there are two giants there too. They’re so big and tall that you can’t even see the hats on their heads. Due to a previous banter, those two giants are forever locked in an endless fight, always clashing swords whenever the volcano erupts.”

“Now you’re just making this up,” Daniel said.

“You don’t believe me?”

“Hardly sounds believable.”

Seongwu puffed out his cheeks, disappointment on his face. “Fine. Then I’ll take you there one day and I’ll show you.”

This time, Daniel _did_ laugh. “And why would I want to go anywhere with you?”

With another shrug, Seongwu just said, “You never know where life will take you.”

Daniel really couldn’t figure out if Seongwu was just joking or being serious. He felt that the pirate captain was messing around with him. “And what’s the next destination? Where are you and your crew heading to after this?”

Seongwu let out a dramatic sigh. “If you don’t even believe my story about Little Garden, you’re not going to believe the next destination.”

“Try me.”

A serious expression was on Seongwu’s face. There was no joking tone to his voice, nothing that indicated that he was making fun of Daniel. With his free hand, Seongwu pointed to the sky.

“We’re going up there.”

Daniel blinked in confusion, following the direction of Seongwu’s finger. More than puzzled, he stared at the night sky. He only saw the clouds, the stars, and the moon.

“You’re going to the moon?” Daniel asked, disbelief in his voice.

“What? No.” Seongwu broke out in a small smile, as if Daniel’s guess was far too preposterous. “Come on now, no one can go to the moon.”

“It’s probably just as ridiculous as what you’re about to say next then,” Daniel mumbled.

“The clouds, Daniel.” Seongwu set his hand down. The flame in his other hand grew brighter. “Have you ever heard of Sky Island?”

“Sky _what?”_

“Sky Island. It’s a legend that pirates have been talking about. Believe it or not... there’s a city up there, nestled in the clouds, high up in the sky.”

“Bullshit.”

“See? I knew you wouldn’t believe me.”

“A city on the clouds? That’s ridiculous.”

“You know how a Log Pose works, right?”

Daniel really felt that Seongwu was underestimating him. With a little bit of annoyance in his voice, Daniel answered, “Of course I do. Marines use it _all the time._ A Log Pose is a compass used in the Grand Line. It locks onto an island’s magnetic pole, showing the direction to that island. After a certain time, the Log Pose will eventually lock onto another island, leading travelers there as well. As the person holding onto that Log Pose travels the sea, the Log Pose will continue locking onto other islands.”

“Right,” Seongwu said, digging into his pocket. “This is my crew’s Log Pose. Do you see where it’s pointing at?”

Seongwu held a compass-like object in his hand. It was in the shape of a wristwatch with a small glass orb as its face. In the orb was a needle, and the needle pointed straight to the sky.

“Must be broken then,” Daniel said. But he furrowed his brow, because Log Poses were never supposed to break. But his eyes weren’t deceiving him either.

“A Log Pose never lies,” Seongwu said confidently. “There’s an island up there, somewhere up in the clouds. An island full of not only treasures, but an adventure as well. And me and my crew’s going there.”

“And how the hell do you expect to go there?” Daniel asked incredulously. “Are you going to _fly?”_

“Now _that’s_ the thing.”  Seongwu looked proud, as if Daniel was asking the right questions this time. “We don’t know how. That’s why we’ll make a stop at a nearby island to ask about this Sky Island. One of my crewmates has gotten ahold of an Eternal Pose— oh, an Eternal Pose is pretty much like the Log Pose except that it stays locked on a certain island and never changes—”

“I _know_ what an Eternal Pose is,” Daniel said with gritted teeth.

Seongwu smirked. “So my crewmate has an Eternal Pose that leads to an island called Jaya. We’re gonna ask around and see if we can get any information about Sky Island.”

“Uh-huh.” Daniel just nodded, unconvinced. But that didn’t matter. None of this was his business.

But he did hold onto the most important piece of information: the Hourglass Pirates were going to make a stop at an island. If there was a chance for Daniel to escape from these pirates, it would be there.

Just when he was about to make a remark, Seongwu suddenly spoke.

“Oh! I have a good idea. Wait a sec.” Seongwu then reached over to the crates, opening one up.

Daniel was going back into defense mode when Seongwu pulled out two bottles from a crate. Getting comfortable and leaning heavily against the wall of the crow’s nest again, he held out one bottle to Daniel.

“It’ll keep us warm too,” he said. Seeing the skeptic look on Daniel’s face, he added, “It’s just a drink.” With expert hands, he popped off the lid of one of the bottles with his free hand. He then took a long sip from it, showed Daniel that he was fine and not writhing in pain, and finally held it out to the Marine.

Deeming the bottle’s content safe, Daniel took it in his hands and drank. He felt the satisfying warmth of alcohol travel down his throat and throughout his body.

With the combined warmth of both the drink and Seongwu’s fire, Daniel was sure that he no longer felt the chilly wind. The pirate captain smiled before taking a swig from his own bottle.

They stared at the sky for a while. And for a few precious seconds, Daniel listened to the sounds of the waves, even feeling his mind somehow at peace. He brought the bottle to his lips again.

Then Seongwu, smiling brightly, looked at him and said, “Hey, Daniel. Would you like to join my crew?”

Daniel choked on his drink.

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (I was originally gonna have this as a long one shot but decided that I wanted to play around with the chapter titles hehe)


	2. we found each other.

 

 

 

 

 

The next day started off with lots of screaming.

Daniel woke up to the yells of _“captain!”_ and _“Seongwu!”._ He slowly opened his eyes, squinting when sunlight filled his vision.

His neck was stiff. With a groan, Daniel realized that he had fallen asleep against something.

He glanced to his right, wondering what was next to him.

It was Ong Seongwu.

The realization that he and the pirate captain had fallen asleep _leaning against each other_ dawned on Daniel. He quickly sat up, flustered.

Seongwu jolted awake almost immediately. He also sat up, rubbing his eyes. “What the...”

As Seongwu’s crew continued calling for their captain, Daniel remembered last night’s events.

Still seated at the crow’s nest, they had talked about the ridiculous Sky Island for a few more minutes. Both had finished their bottles, but Daniel was far from being drunk. Seongwu looked like he had full control of his senses too. They had stared at the stars for a bit, not saying anything. It was late at night, and Daniel was exhausted and sleepy.

And Daniel being the person that could fall asleep anytime and anywhere, he fell asleep right there. And he remembered tipping a bit to the right before his eyes closed completely.

Seongwu must have fallen asleep sometime afterward.

Trying not to think of how he had unintentionally used Seongwu’s shoulder as a pillow, Daniel stood up.

The yells grew louder. And this time they were directed at Daniel.

“There’s the Marine!”

“Hey! What did you do to Seongwu-hyung?!”

“Where’s our captain?!”

Daniel cursed under his breath. He was looking down from the crow’s nest, and Seongwu’s crewmates were below. He saw one of them pointing a rifle _right at him._

“Wait—” he said.

“GET HIM!”

A voice nearby yelled, “You’re dead, Marine!”

Daniel turned to the left, seeing Jihoon climbing to the crow’s nest with a fury in his eyes and a katana in his belt. Daniel tried to remember the last time he saw something so terrifying.

“Where the hell is Seongwu-hyung!” Jihoon demanded.

Daniel pointed to the spot next to him.

That enraged Jihoon even more. With one hand, he began unsheathing his sword, still managing to continue climbing with the other. “What did you do to him?!”

Seongwu then shot to his feet, raising his arms. “I’m right here! I’m fine! Calm down, guys!”

Everyone stopped yelling. Jihoon stopped climbing. And Daniel tried to steady his heartbeat.

A collective sigh of relief sounded around the ship.

Seongwu continued to talk loudly for his crewmates to hear. “Me and Daniel were just having a little chat last night. Sorry, I forgot to wake up Woojin for his shift. But I’m _fine._ ” He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “I’m coming down now.”

On the deck, one of the youngest pirates stomped his feet. “We were so worried, hyung! Don’t do that again!”

“I won’t, Daehwi!”

As Daehwi continued to yell about how he had prepared breakfast for the crew, Daniel sat down again. He had just woken up but he felt tired already.

 

 

 

Breakfast was even weirder than last night’s dinner.

The food was good. Daniel wanted to at least compliment the ship’s chef— especially after knowing how young Lee Daehwi was.

Focusing on his food, Jihoon didn’t send him deathly glares this time. Which was a good thing. Daniel even got to hear the conversations from the other crewmates— Minhyun, Woojin, Guanlin, and Jinyoung. Not bothering to hush their voices, they didn’t seem bothered by the fact that a Marine was at the ship’s deck with them.

The somewhat calm meal was broken when Seongwu made his announcement. The crewmates were scattered all over the deck, but they all turned to look at both the Marine and Seongwu who were leaning against the main mast.

“Yo, everyone. Daniel’s gonna join the crew.”

The look of surprise on everyone’s faces couldn’t match Daniel’s. If Daniel was eating or drinking something, he would have choked again.

The previous night when Seongwu had proposed the idea of Daniel joining, the Marine had unceremoniously choked on his rum. But after overcoming his initial shock, Daniel just fixed him with a confused and rather furious glare— as if the idea itself was the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard. Seongwu had then let out a jolly laugh before taking another sip from his bottle and looking at the sky. He didn’t mention any recruitment ideas after that.

Before the crew began to sound their protests or comments, Daniel stood up. “I never agreed to that.”

“It’ll be fun!” Seongwu said.

The crew’s reactions were interesting. Most were surprised, and others just blinked and nodded, as if it was something that happened often.

“Look,” Daniel said. For the umpteenth time, he couldn’t believe this was happening. “Thanks for saving me and for looking after me.” He was addressing the entire crew this time, not just Seongwu. “I’m really grateful for that. But I really shouldn’t be here any longer. The captain said that this ship’s heading to Jaya Island. Once we reach that island, I’ll just go on my own way and you’ll never have to see me again.”

There were things that Daniel could have said, but knew better not to. He could have said that even the thought of joining a pirate crew made his blood boil. Because why would he work with the sort of people that he hated the most? It was preposterous.

He remembered his little, peaceful home. It was a lovely town, really. But then the pirates came, looting and attacking everything in sight. His own mother could have been badly hurt— or even worse. It was true that the town eventually picked itself up, rebuilding itself and eventually going back to how it was before the attack. But nonetheless, the memory would remain. And Daniel would never forget. Nothing could ever make him forget both the horrifying events and also his hatred of pirates.

But he wasn’t going to blurt all of that in front of _these_ pirates. Although he never understood their intentions, but they had saved and taken care of him. Was it their true nature? Or was it all just a farce? Daniel didn’t want to stick around too long to find out. The quicker he was away from them, the better.

“Well, there we have it,” Seongwu then said. He was leaning heavily against the mast. “I guess we’ll just keep heading to Sky Island without him. We’ll drop him off at Jaya.”

 _Just like that?_ Daniel thought. He had expected the pirate captain to keep urging him to join.

Seongwu turned towards one of his crewmates. “Minhyun. How long till we reach Jaya?”

Daniel remembered Minhyun to be the ship’s navigator. He was tall and, if Daniel’s memory served him correctly, Minhyun’s bounty price was only a little below Seongwu’s. Which meant that he was a quite the dangerous person as well.

“We’ll reach there by tomorrow morning,” Minhyun answered. He was glancing at their surroundings. “That is, if the weather’s as good as today.”

“Then let’s hope for clear skies,” Seongwu said.  He then turned to Daniel with a smile. “We still have till tomorrow, so how about you help around on the ship? Since you’re freeloading, after all.”

Daniel really had a bad feeling about all this.

 

 

 

“Helping around the ship” wasn’t as dreadful as Daniel thought it would be. He thought he would be doing embarrassing or disgraceful things— but instead, it was as if he was hanging out with the crewmates.

The sea was calm, making it an opportune time for fishing.

And Daniel would find out that Ong Seongwu was _shit_ at fishing.

While Minhyun and Woojin made sure that the ship was on the right course, Daniel joined a handful of crewmates by the ship’s railing. There were many fishing rods there, which Daniel thought was odd. It would be much more efficient to use a net, but the pirates had said that they preferred this way because it was “much more fun”.

Jaehwan was a pro at fishing. They had just started when he caught one immediately. After overcoming the surprise of seeing a floating fishing rod _(damn those invisible powers),_ Daniel would find out that Sungwoon was good as well. The younger pirates— Daehwi, Guanlin, and Jinyoung even caught a few fishes here and there.

Daniel, quite proud of himself, had a bucket full of fishes as well.

The captain, on the other hand...

After half an hour of catching nothing, Seongwu let out a whine and flopped onto his back, fishing rod forsaken. “That’s it. I give up.”

Daniel glanced over his shoulder to look at the captain. On the deck, Seongwu was rolling over to his side, a pout on his face.

While waiting for his next catch, Daniel decided to engage in a little bit of conversation. “Giving up already?”

“Yes. The fishes hate me. They must have planned this against me. Those little demons.”

Daniel laughed. “Nah, you just suck at fishing.”

He thought Seongwu would send him a snarky remark in return.

But instead, Seongwu sat up, looking excited. “Oh! You just laughed!”

“What?”

“This is the first time I saw you laugh,” Seongwu said. “You have a really nice smile.”

“Wh— _What?”_

At the sudden compliment, Daniel felt the blood rush to his cheeks.

Flustered, he turned back to the sea. Whatever Seongwu said after that, he refused to hear. He had tuned the pirate out.

 _What the fuck?_ he thought. _What the actual fuck?_

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

It was a lazy day, but time seemed to move quickly for Daniel.

He learned more about the Hourglass Pirates— even if it was never his intention to.

They were a playful bunch of people. Not only the younger ones, but the pirates that were around Daniel’s age were also loud and joyful.

One of the crew’s youngest, Bae Jinyoung, was a historian. He had a pile of books surrounding him on the deck, and while he sat there, he explained to Seongwu and Minhyun about any bit of information regarding the mysterious _Sky Island._ While they were talking seriously, Sungwoon was keeping Daehwi and Guanlin entertained with his powers— turning himself and objects invisible.

Jaehwan, who had been plucking strings on his guitar, howled with laughter when Sungwoon caused a pair of undergarments to float in midair. Daniel, who was standing next to him at the railing, felt like his eardrums had exploded.

“Sungwoon-hyung’s the best,” Jaehwan giggled, as he continued playing his guitar.

Daniel eyed the man next to him carefully. Kim Jaehwan was the ship’s musician, always keeping the crew’s spirits up with his songs. But Daniel reminded himself that although Jaehwan had soft and childish features, the pirate was also quite a deadly fighter as well.

And it wasn’t just Jaehwan. Every single pirate on the ship were wanted men. Daniel had seen bounty posters of all of them— saw how much their heads would cost if someone were to turn them in. Of course, the highest bounty belonged to the captain.

Daniel glanced around. On the other side of the deck, he saw Jihoon and Woojin in a sparring match, thankfully not using real swords. Although they both had smiles on their faces, it was an intense and serious fight.

Glancing down to the younger pirates, Daniel observed the object in Guanlin’s hand. It was a rifle. He was dismantling a rifle and cleaning its parts.

“Isn’t Lai Guanlin only 16 years old?” Daniel muttered to himself. Jaehwan heard it.

“Yeah.” Jaehwan’s eyes were on Daniel now. “And?”

“It’s nothing,” Daniel answered. He wasn’t going to talk about how odd it was for such a young boy to already be sailing at sea like this, as a pirate, as a _marksman._ And it wasn’t just Guanlin. There were others that were barely any older than him.

“Guanlin asked to join the crew,” Jaehwan said. He was playing a cheerful song on his guitar. “Seongwu agreed. The crew took a quick liking to him, too. He has a cute personality. And he has insanely good aim.”

“Right.” Daniel didn’t know where the conversation would lead, and he wondered if he should drop it.

He didn’t need to decide, because a distraction in the form of Ha Sungwoon arrived.

Materializing out of nowhere, Sungwoon raised his voice dramatically. “A volunteer! I need a volunteer!”

“Why don’t you go?” Jaehwan said with a grin.

When Daniel realized that Jaehwan was talking about him, he almost coughed. “Me?”

“Yeah! Why not?”

“Why would I—”

Jaehwan waved his arm. “Sungwoon-hyung! We’ve got a volunteer here!”

“Wait—”

Sungwoon clapped his hands. “Great! Come on up, Daniel!”

Guanlin and Daehwi were looking at him with big, hopeful eyes. Daniel felt a squeeze around his heart, and a part of him really didn’t want to disappoint these kids.

“The captain asked you to help us out around the ship,” Jaehwan whispered to him. “And this is a way to help.”

“This is just playing around,” Daniel hissed back.

“Same thing. Go, go!”

Rolling his eyes, Daniel walked forwards. There was no harm in this, so why not?

When he reached Sungwoon, he could see Woojin and Jihoon ceasing their swordfight to glance in their direction.

Sungwoon stood on his tiptoes to whisper in Daniel’s ear. “I’m gonna turn you and me invisible. Then we’re gonna creep up to the kids and we’re gonna suddenly appear and we’re gonna scare them. Just scream really loudly or something.”

The close proximity should have been alarming. But Daniel nodded, even bending down a little to lessen the height gap.

Sungwoon grabbing his hand should have been alarming as well. But Daniel allowed Sungwoon to do so, even not flinching when the shorter man’s fingers wrapped around his.

“Okay, kids,” Sungwoon announced. “We’re gonna play hide and seek now! Close your eyes, count to ten, and then find me and Daniel.”

Woojin had rushed to sit next to Daehwi. Jihoon hesitantly followed. Jinyoung glanced up from his pile of books, interested as well.

Sungwoon grinned widely. “Starting...  _now!”_

Never in his life did Daniel think he would turn invisible. One second he was staring at his and Sungwoon’s intertwined hands, and the next second he was staring at nothing but the floor beneath his feet.

Not even able to see his own body, Daniel was more than a little alarmed. But he felt a tug on his hand, and he was reassured that Sungwoon was still there.

The pirate led him towards where the kids sat with their eyes closed. Guanlin and Woojin were excitedly counting down to ten.

Daniel felt another tug on his hand and he could guess that Sungwoon was crouching down. Doing the same, Daniel oddly found himself looking forward to seeing the surprised looks on the young pirates’ faces. He and Sungwoon were only a few inches right in front of them.

“One!” Guanlin shouted, opening his eyes.

As the other kids did the same, Sungwoon and Daniel materialized out of thin air.

They didn’t even need to yell. Having two men appear out of nowhere was already freaky enough.

Daehwi and Woojin screamed. Guanlin’s jaw dropped, and he soon burst into laughter at his own shock. Jihoon flinched where he stood.

 _They’re really just kids,_ Daniel thought. _Just kids._

Sungwoon was on the floor, giggling and wheezing for air while Jaehwan howled with laughter once more. Daniel looked in the direction of the other pirates, saw the amused look that both Jinyoung and Minhyun had.

And Daniel saw the bright smile on Seongwu’s face. The pirate captain was laughing, and for a split second, Daniel forgot that Ong Seongwu was a pirate. At that moment, all Daniel saw was a happy, youthful, and beautiful man.

Daniel nearly smiled as well. He felt the corner of his lips curl a bit— but he quickly stopped himself.

He remembered that he was in the company of pirates. And he was supposed to despise pirates.

 

 

After everyone had gotten ahold of themselves, Seongwu asked the crew to huddle so that they could discuss their next plans.

Daniel found himself sitting between Seongwu and Guanlin. The sun was high in the sky, yet the wind that blew by kept them cool while they sat on the deck.

Jinyoung was talking about the things that he had read and heard and how he tried piecing the information together. Even the boy looked a little skeptic about Sky Island, but he also told them how there was also reason to believe that a whole island really was up there.

“I guess we’ll find out when we ask around,” he said. “Maybe the people at Jaya know more about this than us.”

“So we just gotta wait till tomorrow,” Seongwu said.

Jinyoung nodded. “Yes. There’s no guarantee that the people there will know anything. But we gotta give it a shot.”

“Alright. To save time and cover more ground, we should split up into groups when we reach Jaya. Some will guard the ship, but some will go to the island to ask the people there. Also—”

“Captain,” Woojin suddenly spoke, voice tense.

“What is it, Woojin?”

Woojin was staring at the horizon. “Look.”

Daniel followed the pirate’s gaze, while the others did the same. Squinting his eyes, Daniel could make out the form of a ship, far in the distance.

“They really won’t give up, huh?” Seongwu muttered, standing up.

“What is it?” Daniel asked.

“They can’t possibly catch up to us,” Woojin was saying. “...Right?”

Minhyun’s eyes were intense. “They have a few tricks up their sleeves. There’s a lot of distance between us and them, but that’s no guarantee.”

Daniel sighed. “Can someone please tell me what’s going on?”

“They’re after me,” Guanlin whispered.

The kid was shivering, sweat starting to drip down his face. Daniel had never seen him look so terrified.

“What do you mean they’re after you?”

Seongwu then spoke up. “Okay, everyone. Get ready to fight. Guanlin— you go down to hide. Daehwi and Jinyoung, protect him.” He turned to the others. “Woojin and Minhyun— get our ship out of here. Everyone else, stay on deck and we’ll fight those bastards off.”

Everyone stood up and ran off to their stations. The deck door slammed behind the kids as they disappeared behind it, and Daniel saw Jihoon unsheathing his sword and Jaehwan cracking is fists.

Seongwu turned to Daniel, his face serious. “Do you have good aim?”

“What?”

Woojin was at the ship’s wheel, gripping tightly onto it while Minhyun instructed him on the right course.

Seongwu was walking towards a crate near the mast, gesturing Daniel to follow him. “There’s a group of pirates on that ship. Long story short, we saved Guanlin from them. They want him back. Guanlin’s crazy good at shooting, and they can’t let go of his skills that easily.” He opened the crate, taking out a sniper rifle from it and holding it out to the Marine. “And we are _not_ gonna let them take him. So, do you have good aim?”

“I do,” Daniel said. If there was something that he took pride in himself, it was his marksmanship. He took the rifle and tested the weight in his hands. “Once they get in range, I can snipe them.”

Seongwu smirked. “Good.”

So Daniel was going to fight pirates...  _alongside pirates._ The last bit made him feel perturbed. But if he wanted to make it to shore, Daniel needed to stay on the Hourglass Pirates’ ship, which meant that he had to protect it and its crew from enemy attacks.

It wasn’t just that. He felt the urge to also protect Lai Guanlin. The youngest pirate was just a 16-year-old kid, after all. He had such an innocent smile that Daniel hoped wouldn’t disappear.

So Daniel would fight for them. At least just this once.

_“Captain!”_

It was Jihoon this time, pointing at the sea.

Daniel thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. But the enemy ship was closer— gaining speed at an unbelievable pace. Water splashed behind and around it, as if the ship was blasting through the sea.

“Holy shit,” Daniel breathed.

“They’ve got some hella crazy carpenters,” Seongwu said. “That is not a normal ship.”

Right beside them, Sungwoon disappeared from sight. His voice could be heard in the air. “Here we go.”  

 

 

 

The next hour passed by in a blur.

Daniel climbed onto the crow’s nest, finding a better view and aim of the enemy ship.

Seongwu was right. There was something extremely abnormal about that vessel. It only took a couple minutes for it to catch up with the Hourglass Pirate’s ship, and soon the sound of gunfire filled Daniel’s ears.

Through the sniper’s rifle, Daniel could see the enemy pirates.

There were dozens of them. Some were heavily armed while others appeared to be waiting to get closer. Daniel noted how some wielded swords and weapons while others were empty-handed.

 _Probably more Devil Fruit users,_ Daniel thought. Which meant that he couldn’t let them come close.

When the gap between the two ships grew smaller, Daniel began to open fire.

He took down half a dozen of them with the intent of maiming and not to kill. He wanted to prove that he was better than these pirates— that he had humanity in him, that he was different from them.

Soon the enemy pirates had spotted him and began returning fire. Daniel ducked behind the crates in the crow’s nest, hearing the sound of shattering glass and wondering how much of Seongwu’s rum collection would be wiped out before the day was over.

He heard gunshots below him, signaling that the Hourglass Pirates were fighting back and fighting hard.

Seconds passed when the barrage of bullets no longer reached the crow’s nest. Daniel climbed to his feet, back in position.

The ships were parallel with each other now. The enemy pirates retrieved planks and threw them across to the other ship, making a makeshift bridge from one ship to the other.

While the enemy began to cross to the Hourglass Pirates’ deck, Daniel could hear Seongwu shouting out to his crewmates.

“Push them back! I’ll take down the ship!”

Daniel was already sniping as many people as he could, seeing some lose their balance on the planks and falling into the sea. Another enemy pirate had already crossed, but he was soon lifted off his feet, hanging in midair as if something (or _someone)_ invisible was holding him by the neck.

Through his scope, Daniel saw Jihoon. The boy was on one of the planks connecting the ships, taking down anyone coming his way with a swing of his katana.

Daniel felt a shiver run down his spine. He was right— he would _not_ like to be on Jihoon’s bad side.

With them and the combined firepower from the other crewmates, the enemy pirates were pushed back to their own ship. Jihoon retreated to the deck. It was then that Seongwu ran forwards.

Flames burst out of his hands and enveloped his body. In the blink of an eye, he set fire to the planks, putting an end to those that wanted to cross.

As the wooden boards burned and fell into the sea, Seongwu leapt.

For a split second, he was soaring through the air with nothing but the sea beneath him. Daniel couldn’t help but think that if Seongwu were to fall right there, he would sink like a rock. Devil Fruit users like Ong Seongwu were helpless in the water.

But Seongwu didn’t fall. He landed on the enemy’s ship cleanly on his feet.

As Daniel sniped down the pirates near Seongwu, he saw a smirk flash across the pirate captain’s face.

It was a mischievous smirk. And it was also a smirk of victory.

The enemy had opened fire on him, firing rounds upon rounds on the intruder. A normal person would have been dead already.

Except Ong Seongwu was _not_ a normal person. Transforming his body parts into flame, the bullets passed right through him, leaving him unharmed.

With flicks of his wrists, Seongwu sent a barrage of fire around him— hitting both pirates and the ship.

What happened next left Daniel with a feeling of both awe and a weird terror. Seongwu continued the attack, dodging the people that came at him, the smirk still on his face as he set the ship on fire.

He aimed for the main mast and its sails first. After those went up in flames, Seongwu continued hitting the smaller masts and parts of the deck.

It was monstrous. _Seongwu was a monster._ Daniel had heard stories about this certain pirate captain— about “Fire Fist” Seongwu. But seeing him in action, in person, _and up close_ , it really was something else. With the rising inferno of fire in front of him, Daniel was reminded again of how foolish he was to think that he could take down the pirate Ong Seongwu all by himself.

The enemy pirates were in a frenzy as they attempted to deal with the fire. Daniel could feel the air becoming hot— the flames were growing and growing.

And soon a figure appeared from the inferno. It was Seongwu.

There was a long rope to operate the enemy ship’s mast. Seongwu had cut it and used it to his advantage, using the rope to swing him back to his own ship.

Seongwu was fearless. He could have miscalculated the velocity in which he was swinging, or how he could have lost his grip on the rope and how he could have fallen into the sea.

But when he let go, he let go with confidence. For a bit, he was suspended in midair before his feet hit home— on the deck of his own ship.

The fire dissolved back into his body. Jaehwan ran to him and clapped him on the back.

“Good work, captain.”

“Thanks, Jaehwan.”

Seongwu then ran to the wheel, where Minhyun told him how the wind would aid their escape. The enemy’s ship was in ruins, but the Hourglass Pirates’ ship was in top condition. They could easily outrun the other.

“Right. Get us out of here,” Seongwu said. Minhyun and Woojin nodded, focusing on their jobs.

Daniel slid to his knees. He wasn’t sure when his legs felt like giving out, but they finally did.

He stayed like that for quite a long while, trying to regain the energy back in his body. He felt tired and drained. Unsure of whether to feel afraid or awestruck, Daniel decided that he felt both.

Daniel tried to deny it. But he knew it would be useless because the trembling of his hands said otherwise.

He had to admit it— Ong Seongwu was both astonishing and terrifying.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

The Hourglass Pirates held a toast that night after dinner.

It was to celebrate their victory and also to signal the beginning of their journey to Sky Island.   

Maybe Daniel should have been more focused on the memory of a burning ship. Or maybe he should have been focused on the smiles on the other crewmates’ faces as they talked about the adventures they would have on the supposed city on the clouds.

But Daniel’s full attention was on the sight of Seongwu giving Guanlin a big hug. Patting the boy’s back, Seongwu reassured him that he was safe.

In that moment, Daniel didn’t think about who they were and what they had done before— or the crimes they had committed.

All that passed Daniel’s mind was, _what a heartwarming sight._

He wasn’t supposed to feel like this.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

Before everyone went to bed, Seongwu (underneath the supervision of Sungwoon) helped change Daniel’s bandages. All of the action and sudden movements had opened a few of Daniel’s wounds, but Seongwu made sure to tend to them.

This time, Daniel allowed himself to stare at Seongwu as he worked.

 

 

 

Daniel had prepared himself for some sort of surprised that night. He understood by now that normality and expected events were things that he would not find on the Hourglass Pirates’ ship.

But this time the surprise didn’t come from the pirates. It came from an unexpected source.

 

 

 

That night, Seongwu had told Daniel that it was fine to roam around the ship.

So that was what Daniel did, after deeming that the whole crew was asleep. He knew that it was well past midnight when he stepped out of his room and onto the empty hallways again.

This time he didn’t go to the deck. He headed to the kitchen, remembering how Daehwi informed him that the shelves were full of food, just in case he was hungry.

Daniel wasn’t hungry nor thirsty. He just needed to move— staying still at one place made him feel uneasy.

The kitchen was at the end of the hall. As quietly as possible, he swung open the door, careful to not let it creak.

He got a shock when he saw Daehwi there, sitting on one of the chairs, eyes closed as he slept on the table.

The kid must have dozed off. Daniel walked up to him carefully, wondering if he should wake him up.

A hand on Daehwi’s shoulder, Daniel gently shook him. “Hey, it’s cold out here. You should go back to your room—”

His voice trailed off when the little pirate’s body shifted, nearly falling off the chair. Daniel quickly caught him, propping him back up on the chair. Daehwi was as limp as a fish.

He knew something was wrong immediately. This wasn’t the tendencies of a heavy sleeper. It was the signs of a person who had been knocked out. The little boy was breathing— so he was alive. Just knocked out.

Daniel held onto Daehwi and carefully set him on the floor where he wouldn’t fall over and hurt himself. Once done, Daniel glanced around, his senses on high alert.

_There was an intruder on the ship._

The kitchen was dimly lit, its corners drenched in darkness. Daniel reached over to grab a bottle from the kitchen table, wrapping his fingers around it.

“Whoever you are,” Daniel said, his voice firm. “Come on out.”

He wasn’t sure where he was getting his courage from. Maybe being in the pirates’ presence and witnessing their boldness and recklessness somehow affected him.

A shadow moved in the darkness. Daniel got ready to defend and perhaps attack.

He did not expect to hear a familiar voice.

_“Daniel?”_

Nearly dropping the bottle out of surprise, Daniel felt his eyes going wide, his jaw going slack.

He couldn’t believe it. But immediately he felt comforted, feeling things were going to be alright.

“Hyung.” Breathless, Daniel stepped forwards, setting the bottle back on the table. “Jisung-hyung.”

Jisung stepped out of the shadows, the look of absolute worry on his face. He held a pistol in his hands, but at the sight of Daniel, he quickly placed it back in its holster.

Soon arms were wrapped around Daniel, and he let himself be enveloped into the hug.

Jisung held him close, voice muffled against Daniel’s shoulder as he said, “You’re okay.”

“I am.” Daniel felt the smile spread across his face. He patted Jisung on the back, gently. “I’m okay, really.”

“You idiot. Why did you go out and chase the pirates by yourself?”

“Sorry, hyung. I wasn’t thinking straight. How did you get here?”

“It took some time, but I finally managed to track you down.” Jisung pulled back, examining Daniel. “Are you hurt? Did they do anything to you?”

Daniel quickly shook his head. “No, they didn’t. They didn’t harm me at all. In fact...” His voice trailed off.

_In fact, they looked after me. Took care of me. They were kind towards me._

But he wasn’t going to say all that. A part of him told him that he shouldn’t. It was as if— if he were to share his feelings and thoughts about the pirates, it would fully confirm that they were true. And at the moment, he still couldn’t believe that his perception of pirates had been shaken even in the slightest.

Jisung was looking at him with concerned eyes. “What is it, Daniel?”

“It’s nothing,” Daniel said, pulling on a reassuring smile. “I’m fine.”

“Okay.”

“By the way. What did you do to him?” Daniel glanced at Daehwi, and Jisung let out a small hum.

“I just knocked him out with my darts. He’s just sleeping and will wake up in a few hours. I wouldn’t hurt a little kid like him.”

“That’s good to hear.”

Jisung then let go of Daniel, a relieved smile on his face. “Okay. Now let’s get out of here. I’m only here with a couple of my men. They’re on a small separate boat. We don’t have enough people to capture the pirates but it’s enough to rescue you.”

There were two things going on in Daniel’s mind.

One: whoever was on guard duty was not doing a good job. Or perhaps that person was knocked out as well.

Two: Jisung was going to take him away from the pirates— something that he had wanted ever since he first woke up on the ship— but now that the opportunity presented itself, Daniel felt... reluctant.

He was reluctant to leave the pirates.

What were the odds?

Jisung was holding gently but firmly onto Daniel’s wrist, and when he began to head towards the door, he was tugged back when Daniel didn’t budge.

Turning around to look at the younger man, Jisung tilted his head in confusion.

“You’re gonna say that I’m crazy,” Daniel muttered. He was looking at the ground, unable to look at Jisung.

“Daniel?”

“I can’t go back with you now, hyung.”

“What?”

After a silence, Jisung asked again.

“What do you mean, Daniel?”

This time Daniel glanced up. The look on Jisung’s face made Daniel want to leave with him— if anything to stop his friend from worrying.

But there was the oddest squeeze on his heart at the thought of leaving the pirates’ ship just like that. He felt that there was more to be done— more that _needed_ to be done.

He was grasping at straws. Daniel knew that. But he held onto the first thing that popped in his mind, hoping it was a valid enough excuse to stay.

“Sky Island.”

The confusion only grew on Jisung’s face. “Daniel, what are you—”

“Sky Island, hyung.” Daniel knew he sounded crazy. But he kept pushing through. “The Hourglass Pirates are heading to Sky Island.”

“You mean the legend? The story that we read in children’s books?”

“Yes, but...” The lies felt bitter on Daniel’s tongue. “It’s not just a legend, hyung. It may actually be real.”

“What—?”

“The pirates have reason to believe that there really is an island up there in the clouds. And they’re heading there. And I think— I think I should stick with them for a while.”

Looking alarmed, Jisung took a step towards Daniel. “Are you sure you’re okay, Niel?”

“I’m fine, hyung.” Daniel patted his friend on the shoulder. “Believe me.”

“Daniel, don’t tell me that you plan to actually _go there_ with these pirates.” Jisung’s voice had risen a little, but he quickly shushed himself. “Sky Island doesn’t exist.”

“It may or it may not,” Daniel said. “But if it does exist, I— _we_ need to know how to get there. The Marines need to know how to get there.” The more Daniel spoke, the more convinced he was with his own bluffing. He didn’t believe in Sky Island. But at that moment, he forced himself to. “You heard the stories of treasures and unheard technology on Sky Island. If the Marines can get ahold of those things— Just imagine that.”

“The Marines would become even more powerful,” Jisung said, sounding uncertain.

“Exactly.”

“But... you’re _going with them?”_

Now _that_ was a good question.

Just how long was Daniel planning to stay with them? Just enough to answer the questions that had popped up in his mind. Just enough time to learn more about these pirates— to deal with the doubt that he had clung onto.

“I’m not going with them to Sky Island,” Daniel finally answered. “But I’m going to be with them long enough to know what I need to know about that so-called island. If it’s real, I’ll get the information on how to get there. And then I’ll head back to you.”

“And how long will that take?”

In the corner of the room, another shadow moved. Daniel flinched, hands balling into a fist, when Jisung quickly spoke.

“That’s just one of my men. Don’t worry— we’re safe.”

Daniel found himself breathing hard. He saw the figure in the darkness, saw the familiar white of the Marine uniforms. “Right.”

“So how long will it take, Daniel?”

“The pirates are planning to go to Jaya Island. They’re expecting to reach it tomorrow.”

“Jaya...” Jisung thought it over. “Mocktown is in that island. Are the pirates heading there?”

“Maybe. I’m not sure exactly where.”

“That’s a lawless town. It’s extremely dangerous. People get wounded and murdered there— it’s a norm in that town. The Marines don’t have power in that place because it’s out of our borders.”

“It’s where the pirates are planning to gather information. I have to go there.”

“Daniel...”

“Hyung, please trust me on this.”

There was another long silence. Jisung’s eyes were unwavering as they stayed on the younger man’s face. But finally, he let out a sigh.

“I’m so worried for you, Daniel. But we’ve stuck together through all these years and I think trust comes along with those years.”

Daniel waited eagerly.

“Fine. I’ll let you stay.” Jisung looked like he would regret his words the moment they left his mouth. “But I’m going to be at Mocktown. Just in case you want to be picked up there.”

Daniel nearly yelled in relief. “Please tell me you won’t bring a whole fleet of Marines with you.”

Jisung let out a small laugh. “No, of course not. It’ll just be me with a couple of my men, just to pick you up. There won’t be a capture attempt on the pirates. Not in that town. We’ll be at the docks at sunset.”

“Right.”

“Daniel.”

“Yes?”

“Please. Please be careful.”

At Jisung’s words and concerned look in his eyes, Daniel really did feel like going back with his friend. It would be so easy— he would sail away on that Marine ship, away from the pirates, and he would forget about the time he had spent with them. He would forget about them, about their little smiles and laughter, about their hopeless dreams and reckless tendencies, and most importantly, he would forget about Ong Seongwu.

But he knew that if he were to leave right there, he would always look back to that day. He would always wonder what would happen if he had stayed— if he had allowed himself to be in the pirates’ company for just a little longer.

So he stayed. He stayed and that was final.

Daniel nodded, confirming his decision. Jisung wrapped him in another hug, telling him to return as soon as he could.

And even after Jisung and the Marines left on their little ship, Daniel felt the relief spread across his body.

He didn’t know what he was so relieved for.

 

 

 

 

 


	3. it brought me

 

 

 

Daehwi had no recollections of the previous night. All he remembered was walking into the kitchen and taking a seat. He was reaching for a glass of water when he suddenly fell asleep.

Daniel remembered where Daehwi’s room was, so he decided to carry Daehwi there and even tuck him in bed. Daehwi’s roommate, Jinyoung, was fast asleep and Daniel tried his best not to wake him up.

Feeling guilty when Daehwi said his thanks for taking care of him like that, Daniel just nodded. The Marine tried not to think that it was actually due to him that the events happened in the first place.

All these troubled thoughts were in his mind while the ship finally docked at Mocktown.

The pirates were all at the railings, staring at the view in front of them. Daniel felt Seongwu’s arm brushing against his as the captain leaned over the railing, as if that would allow him access to a better look at their surroundings.

Jisung had told Daniel that Mocktown was a lawless town. It was the place where pirates decided to spend— or more fittingly, _waste_ — all of their treasures. Murders and crimes were frequent here. Chaos lurked at every corner. Criminals frequented the bars. A person in their right mind wouldn’t go there on their own accord.

But it was the closest island to where the alleged “Sky Island” was. Maybe they could get a few helpful information, or maybe even stories, from the island’s inhabitants and visitors.

And to be honest, Daniel wasn’t sure if the pirates were even in their right mind either.

 _Dangerous_ was an understatement for Mocktown. The buildings were built of rickety bricks and wood, with holes in the walls and even some windows already smashed open. Over the chatter of the dozens and dozens of suspicious and dangerous-looking people with weapons, Daniel could even hear screams and chaotic laughter in the air.

When the Hourglass Pirates dropped anchor at the town’s docks, Daniel could even see some bodies strewn on the dirty roads. Some people at the dock eyed both him and the ship, and they whispered amongst themselves.

The uneasiness was clear on some crew member’s faces. But others were unwavering, not a trace of fear in their eyes even when another scream filled the air.

Daniel especially noticed the sharp gazes of Minhyun, Woojin, Jihoon, Jinyoung, and of course Ong Seongwu himself.

Seongwu finally stepped back from the railing and faced the whole crew. “A few of us will have to stay and guard the ship. The others will split into groups and ask around the town. Look after each other, alright? This town doesn’t look that friendly.”

After a short discussion, the ones in charge of protecting the ship were Guanlin who was still shaken up from yesterday’s events, Daehwi, and Sungwoon.

The pirates that would gather information in the town were divided into two groups— Minhyun, Jaehwan, and Jinyoung in one group. Seongwu, Woojin, and Jihoon in the other.

Everyone was getting their equipment ready for the disembarking. It was at that moment when Seongwu turned to look at Daniel, and Daniel tried not to think of how Seongwu’s hair slightly glowed underneath the sun, or how the pirate captain’s eyes seemed to shine.

They were alone on the deck. Daniel could hear the bustling of the other crewmates as they got ready, but he easily tuned out all the noise when Seongwu spoke.

“So this is where we part ways, huh?”

For a bit, Daniel found himself unable to process the words. He suddenly felt disconnected from the world, sort of hanging there... but only slightly.

Then he was back, completely focused, and the words replayed in his mind in waves.

Seongwu’s eyes were still on him, gaze gentle and slightly hopeful. Daniel finally nodded.

“Yeah. I think I’ll be getting off here.”

A small smile on Seongwu’s face— just a slight tug at the corner of his lips. Daniel must have imagined it— but it looked like a small, sad smile.

“Right.” Seongwu tried to widen the smile. “Then I guess we’ll say goodbye.”

“Wait.”

Daniel was surprised by the firmness in his own voice. Seongwu might have been a little surprised as well, eyes slightly widening.

“Yes?”

“Could I join you guys for a bit? Just to look and ask around town. I can fend for myself so none of you has to worry about me being there.”

Daniel realized that he was nervous. He was _actually nervous_ while waiting for the pirate captain’s answer. But he kept his eyes on the older man, trying to ignore how his heart began to bang loudly against his chest.

But then Seongwu smiled brightly, and Daniel couldn’t ignore how his heart gave a small painful squeeze at the sight.

“Sure,” Seongwu said. “You’re more than welcome to join us.”

He knew that he shouldn’t be feeling happy. But Daniel gave a little nod, feeling that exact emotion in his chest.

 

 

 

The roads were made out of unpainted bricks. Daniel could see blood marks on them that the rain couldn’t wash away.

Seongwu was acting like they were strolling through any other normal town. He didn’t look worried, didn’t look scared. He talked in his friendly voice and walked with a bounce in his step.

But Daniel knew that if needed, Seongwu would launch into fight mode immediately.

The same went for Jihoon and Woojin. They looked ready with their respective weapons—with Jihoon’s hand never leaving the sheath at his hip, and Woojin with his pistol in its holster. Their eyes looked more visibly on guard compared to their carefree-appearing captain.

As they walked, Seongwu turned to the others and said, “Let’s go to a place where a lot of people gather. Maybe a bar or something.”

They passed by a shady alleyway, and Daniel saw some figures lurking in there.

“Right,” Woojin said. He was ignoring glares that were sent by a group of men gathered around a restaurant table— cards splayed all over the tabletop. “Sounds good.”

Seongwu was about to say something else when they all heard a loud crashing sound.

It came from above. Before Daniel had the chance to glance up, Seongwu had grabbed him by the arm and Daniel felt himself being pulled towards the pirate captain.

Daniel just had time to register that the crashing sound he heard was of glass shattering— when a body fell with a _thud_ right in front of him, right where he stood just a few seconds ago.

There were bits of glass around the fallen man, face scratched and clothes ripped at parts. He lay there, unmoving.

Daniel then glanced up, and he saw two figures near the shattered window of a dingy-looking building. They were looking at the view below, at their victim which they had apparently thrown off the third floor of the building.

Then they were gone.

Catching his breath, Daniel realized that he was clinging onto Seongwu’s waist. He had stumbled a bit after being pulled, holding onto the closest thing to make sure he didn’t fall over.

Upon realizing this, he let go and stepped back. Clearing his throat, he felt Seongwu’s hand leave his wrist.

Woojin and Jihoon were staring at the motionless man on the ground, as if waiting for any sign of movement. Jihoon even bent down to get a closer look.

After a few seconds, the sound of rushing footsteps could be heard coming from the building, along with shouts of _“captain!”_. 

“I think we should move on,” Jihoon said. “Looks like this guy’s crewmates are looking for him.”

“Right.” Seongwu then gestured to the road again. “Let’s go.”

 

 

 

Chaos was a norm in Mocktown. That much was obvious.

Nevertheless, they managed to avoid any further incidents before reaching a crowded bar in the middle of town.

All the tables were occupied, chattering and the smell of booze heavy in the air. Sunlight managed to stream into the dark building through its small windows, making the place bright enough to navigate around— but not bright enough to see everyone’s faces clearly.

It seemed that the bar’s occupants were busy minding their own business, none of them noticing the Hourglass Pirates’ entrance. Seongwu looked satisfied with the lack of attention directed their way as they walked towards the counter, towards the bartender.

“I take it that a lot of people in this town are visitors,” Seongwu had said before they entered the building. “So we’ll ask someone who lives here. Somehow who probably spent his life listening to thousands of stories of visitors from all over the sea. Maybe he’s bound to know something.”

The bartender was a small man in a sleeveless shirt. He didn’t look like he was out for blood, or so Daniel hoped.

Seongwu made himself comfortable on one of the counter’s stools. Daniel, Woojin, and Jihoon followed suit. Out of courtesy, Seongwu set down a few coins and ordered four glasses of soju.

Giving them a wide smile, the bartender prepared the drinks.

Daniel had sat next to Seongwu. From the corner of his eye, the Marine could see the small friendly grin on the pirate’s face.

Seongwu slighty raised his voice to be heard over the chatter. “Nice town.”

The bartender let out a laugh. He turned to them, setting down the glasses one by one. “Nice indeed,” he said. He had a gruff voice.

“We walked around for a bit,” Seongwu said, taking a long sip from his glass. “We find the whole place really... fascinating.”

“Is that so?” The bartender raised an eyebrow. “Where are you boys from?”

“We’re from all over.” Setting down his glass, Seongwu then gestured around him, as if to emphasize his words. “And right now we’re looking for a certain place.”

Woojin and Jihoon were eyeing the bartender suspiciously. None of them touched their drinks.

“ _Certain place?”_ The bartender then furrowed his brow. “Lemme guess. You’re looking for the place where the One Piece is located.”

“Actually—”

“Because no can do. If I knew, I would be sailing there right now. I mean, _wow._ Could you imagine all those piles and piles of treasure waiting at the end of the sea, all up for grabs?”

“We’re not looking for that place,” Seongwu said through a smile. “Er, I mean, yes we’re looking for it. Pretty much everyone’s looking for it.” He then leaned forwards, his arms on the counter. “But we found an interesting place that we’d like to go to first. We were hoping we’d find a way to get there.”

“And where’s that?”

“Sky Island.”

“Pardon?”

“Sky Island,” Seongwu repeated. “It’s an island in the clouds. Perhaps you’ve heard of it before? Maybe from the pirates that visited this town?”

More questions, more confused looks— this was what Daniel had expected to come from the bartender. But that wasn’t what they got.

The bartender stared at them for a bit, a small smile playing at the corner of his lips. He then leaned back against the shelves full of bottles and cups, looking around the bar. “An island in the clouds,” he echoed.

“Yes,” Seongwu said, and Daniel could catch the slight discomfort in his voice. Already, the Marine himself could feel something was off at that moment.

“Hmm.” The bartender crossed his arms, still leaning against the shelf. He then raised his voice, addressing the whole bar. “Hey, has anyone heard of Sky Island? These fellows here are looking for it.”

A few occupants of nearby tables turned to look at them. Daniel could feel their sharp gazes, and he could feel Seongwu tense up beside him. Jihoon glared back.

The table burst out in murmurs.

_“Sky Island?”_

_“Really?”_

_“Did you just say Sky Island?”_

Woojin was tapping his full glass carefully, eyes unmoving at the group of people at the table.

“Yes,” Seongwu answered. “Our Log Pose is pointing at the sky. It’s been like that for days. We’re sure that an island with a strong magnetic pull is somewhere up there in the clouds. Have you guys ever heard of something like this?”

There was a big, bulky man sitting at the table. He had long blond hair that nearly covered his eyes. After taking a long swig from a bottle of rum, he wiped his mouth and turned to them. “Sky Island, huh...”

“Does it sound familiar?” Seongwu asked.

“It’s not a matter of how familiar it sounds,” the blond man answered. “But a matter of how much you actually believe in it. So you guys believe it exists?”

“Yes,” Seongwu said, without a second of hesitance. “We believe it’s up there. And we’re looking for a way to get there.”

After letting out a thoughtful hum, the blond man turned to address the table next to him. He then spoke in a loud voice, easily heard over the chatter of the other occupants.

“These guys are looking for a way to Sky Island!”

The words spread like wildfire. Soon there was a collective murmur all around the bar, tables filling each table.

Then the bar _exploded_ with laughter.

It was a congregation of chortles, howls, giggles. Seemingly like a barrage, the laughing came from all sides and corners of the bar. And all of them were undoubtedly aimed at Seongwu and the crew.

It was one of the freakiest things that Daniel had ever experienced. It wasn’t just one or two people, or even groups, but the _whole bar_ decided to laugh at them, just like that. And it wasn’t just laughter— there were humiliating statements being thrown their way as well.

_“Are these kids high?”_

_“They believe in that fucking legend?”_

_“This is hilarious!”_

_“The Grand Line drove them insane!”_

Seongwu was unmoving, looking at the crowd but not exactly looking. Jihoon and Woojin both had more than pissed off expressions, with Jihoon’s face turning a light yet darkening shade of red.

“Don’t,” Seongwu firmly said, seeing Woojin’s hands ball into fists and Jihoon’s fingers lingering on the handle of his sword. The two younger boys seemed to hesitate for a bit, but listened to their captain. “Let’s just go. We can’t get anything from here.”

The blond man walked up to them just as Seongwu climbed to his feet.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

At the blond man’s question, Seongwu just let out a sigh. “And why does that concern you?”

“You think you can just go after sprouting out bullshit like that?”

“Again. Why does that concern you?”

It all happened in a split second.

The blond man raised his fist and hit Seongwu straight in the face. The blow caused the pirate captain to stumble, his back bumping roughly against the bar counter.

A blade made its way right to the blond man’s throat, just mere centimeters from it, while a pistol aimed at his head. Woojin and Jihoon held their respective weapons against the man, their eyes livid.

The laughter died down. An aching and chilling silence replaced it.

Daniel didn’t even realize that he himself had stepped in between Seongwu and the blond man, a protective arm held out to shield the pirate captain from any further attacks.

It wasn’t just them. The table of the blond man was also full of movement, its occupants climbing to their feet, drawing out daggers and guns.

_“Don’t.”_

Seongwu’s voice was even firmer than before. Daniel glanced over his shoulder to see Seongwu rubbing his right cheek where not only a bruise had blossomed, but blood had begun to drip out as well.

“Don’t,” Seongwu repeated. “Don’t attack, guys.”

Woojin looked incredulous. “But, captain—”

“Stand down, guys.”

Daniel was breathing hard, willing himself to calm down. He fixed his eyes on the blond man in front of him again, who began to smile widely.

“Not only is he an idiot,” the man said with a snicker, “he’s also a coward as well.”

“Careful there,” Jihoon warned.

Seongwu began to walk steadily towards them. “Stop. Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

Jihoon and Woojin lowered their weapons, but kept holding firmly onto them as they followed their captain towards the exit. Daniel was still on guard, eyeing the blond man and the people at the table.

The laughter then continued, albeit not as loud and boisterous as before. Sneers and insults were still being thrown their way, this time followed by a couple of stray bottles that shattered at their feet.

_“That’s right, you fucking cowards! Get out of my sight! You make me sick!”_

“Ignore him,” Seongwu said under his breath. Jihoon looked ready to murder someone.

The sun seemed to blind them when they stepped outside, despite having spent only a few minutes inside the bar.

Now that Daniel thought about it, the blond man _did_ look awfully familiar. He numbly realized that he had seen that certain man many times on bounty pictures.

“Are you okay, captain?” Jihoon asked, looking at Seongwu with concern.

Daniel remembered how the blond man was a wanted man, but his bounty price was a lot smaller than Seongwu’s.

“I’m fine,” Seongwu said, rubbing his injured cheek. “Just a bit shaken up. That guy’s punch was pretty weak too.”

The pirate captain’s eyes looked weary and tired. There was a slight stagger in his steps. Daniel glanced at him uncertainly.

“So where now?” Woojin asked.

“I guess ask around some more,” Seongwu answered. “Let’s just hope we’ll actually get some answers this time.”

If he had to be honest, Daniel was more than confused. The pirates had gotten themselves through a shameful and degrading situation. And yet here they were, apparently level-headed and calm.

It was ridiculous. Daniel couldn’t take it anymore. He gave up on walking, standing there for a bit before Seongwu turned around with a questioning look.

“What is it, Daniel?”

“How could you guys be so calm?”

The words slipped out of his mouth easily. It was more than enough proof that further strengthened his opinion that, indeed, pirates were impossible to understand. Especially theses ones.

“They laughed at you,” Daniel said through gritted teeth. “They insulted you. They underestimated you. And you guys are just _brushing it off?_ Just like that? You let them step all over you!”

Woojin and Jihoon’s eyes were on him too. But different from their darkened expressions in the bar, their gazes were slightly soft.

“You guys are more than capable of kicking all their asses,” Daniel continued. “But you didn’t. Not even when that guy threw a punch. I thought pirates at least held tightly onto their pride. I thought that was at least one thing I could understand and relate to.”

 _But you guys disappointed me,_ Daniel almost said, but he held it back. Why did it matter that they disappointed him? And why did he even feel sad to be disappointed in the first place? It wasn’t as if he had any hopes for these pirates, or had anything that he wanted them to prove.

But why? Why did he still feel a strange sting in his chest at the thought of these pirates not reaching his expectations? Hell, he didn’t even _know_ that he had expectations in the first place.

Seongwu’s gaze was steady. He looked determined, not a hint of humiliation in his voice. Not in the least.

“Oh, we held onto our pride,” the pirate captain then said, catching Daniel off guard. “We held onto it tightly. Not once did it slip from us. Not in the least.”

“Then why...?” Daniel questioned. “Why did you let them treat you like shit?”

“There are many ways of getting back to people,” Seongwu said simply. “We could have kicked their asses, as you said. Maybe we would have felt a little better after that. But...” He then paused, and a silence washed over the four of them. “That simply isn’t it. There are much better and fulfilling ways to get back at them.”

“And that is...?”

Seongwu then smiled, and the sun seemed to light up his face. “We’re going to prove them wrong, Daniel. It’d be the biggest and sweetest _fuck you_ that we could give them. We’re going to prove that Sky Island exists, and they’re going to eat their words.” He was smiling now, and Daniel was sure that the sun worked in the pirate captain’s favor to make it the brightest smile he had ever seen. “And we _will_ succeed.”

Stunned. A little shaken. Maybe those were all things that Daniel felt. And, though he did not want to acknowledge it— he was sure of one emotion that emerged after Seongwu’s words, after Daniel had thought about the statements thoroughly.

Guilt.

He felt at least a tiny bit of guilt for saying all those things to the pirates.

 

 

 

They had planned to spend a few good hours looking for more people to ask— perhaps get some real information this time.

But instead, they were greeted with trouble.

The trouble came in the form of a couple dozen Marines, who were spread out around the town in disguise.

Daniel had cursed under his breath when he first saw a familiar face— someone who he had spent a few shifts with at the Marine outpost. And it wasn’t just that one guy. The more Marines that seemed to pop up at random places, Daniel resisted the urge to yell.

Jisung had promised that he would be at Mocktown and that he would only bring a couple men.

 _This._ This was a lot more than a couple men.

But Daniel knew that Jisung kept his promise. He knew Jisung well enough. The person he did not trust was the Marine that had been there on the Hourglass Pirates’ ship with him and Jisung. That person had overheard the entire conversation, decided to take matters into his own hands.

So now there were two things running in Daniel’s mind at the moment.

_Were there Marines flooding the Hourglass Pirates’ ship?_

And...

_What was he supposed to do now that there was a Marine lurking at every corner, ready to capture the pirates?_

Scratch that. There was another thought in his mind.

_Was he going to go home with the Marines now or...?_

But there it was again. That part of Daniel that suddenly kicked in, as if automatically, that made him guide the way for the pirates so that they didn’t bump into the Marines.

Daniel wondered if he should inform Seongwu and the others that there were Marines there _—_ Marines that blended well with the surroundings because they did not wear their uniforms— _that were ready to capture you all._

In the end, he decided to continue his futile attempt of making sure that the pirates and Marines didn’t meet. But of course, things haven’t been going according to plan in Daniel’s life. Especially these past couple days.

Soon a pair of Marines spotted them. After they let out screams and began running towards the pirates, Seongwu and the others caught on quickly and bolted in the other direction.

“I recognize them—” Daniel then finally said in between gasps, keeping up with the others’ speed. “They’re Marines.”

“And you’re telling us you _just_ recognized them?” Jihoon hissed. “Maybe you were the one that brought them here in the first place!”

Daniel answered with a shrug, keeping it ambiguous.

It wasn’t long before they had drawn more attention to themselves and more Marines had gathered from all directions. Seongwu was running rather sluggishly, causing alarmed looks to cross across his crewmates’ faces.

“Hyung,” Woojin said, slowing down until he was side to side with Seongwu. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Seongwu said, but his voice was weak. “Keep going. We need to get to the ship. We gotta— We gotta protect the ship.”

_Bang!_

The first gunshot made Daniel’s ears ring. Subsequent bullets followed, whizzing past the pirates’ heads. A few had caught Seongwu, but he had turned those parts of his bodies to flame, letting the bullets pass through.

The people of Mocktown were looking at them with interest. Perhaps something like this was a common sight for them. Some even cheered and hollered, though they themselves ducked and backed away to avoid any stray shots.

“I have an idea,” Seongwu said, slowing down even more. “You guys go on ahead.”

Before the others could answer, Seongwu stopped running completely. He shut his eyes, as if needing to concentrate, and held out his arms.

Fire shot— or rather exploded— out of his hands. It spread out in an arch, hitting the road from one end to the other.

Obviously straining, Seongwu constructed a wall of fire that served as a temporary barrier between them and the Marines.

The Marines wouldn’t be able to pass through easily... hopefully.

Jihoon and Woojin were at Seongwu’s side.

“We’ll be here just in case any of them breaks through,” Woojin said, patting Seongwu on the shoulder.

“But—” Seongwu began.

“You need to return to the ship,” Jihoon said quickly. “Something’s off with you, hyung. I think— I think the bartender put something in your drink. Weakened you. Whatever it is, you need to go.”

Daniel’s mouth opened in an _“oh”._ No wonder Seongwu looked tired and weak. No wonder Seongwu’s reflexes didn’t kick in when the blond guy aimed a punch at his face. No wonder the bartender acted shady. It all made sense.

Seongwu was the only one who had taken even a sip from the bar’s drinks. And he was suffering the consequences of it.

“Damn that bartender,” the pirate captain cursed under his breath. He then addressed his men. “Alright. Once everyone else is on board, we’ll send up a flare to signal you guys. When you see that, get your asses back to the ship. Then we’ll depart immediately.”

“Aye-aye, captain,” the two younger boys said at the same time.

Seongwu smiled before turning to Daniel. “You coming?”

 _Right,_ Daniel remembered. This was supposed to be their goodbye.

He decided to answer with a question. “You’re not wondering if I, a Marine, was the one who led these Marines here?”

“Not the time for a conversation,” Jihoon said, eyes on the wall of flame.

“I don’t think that matters,” Seongwu said easily. “What matters is what you’re going to do right now, at this moment. So are you coming or not?”

“Not the time!” Jihoon reminded, more urgently.

Daniel wasn’t going to waste another second. He gestured the way to the docks, to the ship, and Seongwu gave a nod before he dashed off in that direction.

Before Daniel chased after him, Jihoon gave him one final glare and said, “Don’t you dare harm our captain, Marine.”

Woojin’s glare was equally threatening.

Daniel left them with a forced smile.

 

 

 

The docks were slightly more crowded compared to when they first arrived. From this distance, they could see that the Hourglass Pirates’ ship was safe and sound, with no sign of Marines there. At least for now.

The relief spread across Seongwu’s face when he saw the ship. But it didn’t last long.

Seongwu had just started his trek towards the ship when he stumbled, effects of the drugged drink overtaking him. Near the dock’s edge, he lost his balance.

Daniel should have caught him. But when Seongwu tipped to the side, body going limp, Daniel didn’t do anything. Instead, he let Seongwu fall right into the sea.

There was a loud _splash,_ then silence.

Just like all Devil Fruit users when they touched the sea, Seongwu sank like a rock.

It was an odd sensation— Daniel feeling so disconnected with the world, at all of this happening. He just stood there, his face blank, as bubbles began to surface where Seongwu had fallen. It wasn’t just bubbles. Soon, the water began to tint with a red color. Perhaps, just perhaps— a bullet had grazed or perhaps hit the pirate captain in his weakened state.

_Seongwu was drowning._

All of the fighting behind Daniel— the screaming and clangs of clashing blades... they all sounded muffled in his ears.

_Seongwu was dying._

The great pirate captain Ong Seongwu. The great “Fire Fist” Seongwu with the mighty power and confident stride.

_Seongwu was going to die if Daniel didn’t do anything._

**_DEAD OR ALIVE._ **

The bolded words of the pirate’s bounty poster flashed before his eyes. A perverse thought made its way into his mind, something that made him feel sick to the stomach. But he thought it over.

It would be _so easy._ He could easily let Seongwu drown here, collect and bring the body to the Marines, and finally...  _finally_ get that promotion. Imagine that! Kang Daniel, a lowly Marine, rising high up in the ranks for catching one of the most wanted pirates of the generation.

_It would be so easy._

But somewhere in Daniel’s clouded mind, a small memory emerged.

He was underneath a night sky full of stars, the cold wind blowing hard at him. But there was a bright man in front of him with a bright smile who held out his hand. A small flame surrounded that hand, radiating a comfortable warmth.

_That flame would disappear if he didn’t do anything._

That snapped Daniel out of his daze. Noise flooded his ears. And he could easily see how the bubbles were decreasing.

Daniel dived into the sea.

He was a good swimmer. Marines had to be good at swimming— their work took them to the sea, after all.

Daniel’s broad arms cut through the water easily, propelling his body forwards, closer and closer to Seongwu.

The pirate had sunk quite a long way. It took Daniel a lot longer than he had hoped to reach him.

But he eventually reached Seongwu, whose eyes were shut tight, who didn’t show any signs of movement. Panic beginning to rise at the back of his throat, Daniel quickly wrapped an arm around Seongwu’s chest and began to make the ascent.

Once they broke through the surface, Daniel gulped in air, replenishing his strength. He noticed how Seongwu still didn’t move.

Lifting the pirate captain onto the dock was a difficult feat, but Daniel managed to do it. Soon they were both splayed over the wooden floor, Daniel hovering over him at his side.

He placed his ear next to the pirate’s mouth and nose, feeling the dread rise when he felt no air coming out of Seongwu. He then checked the pulse, feeling nothing.

“Pirate,” he said, almost pleading. “Pirate, wake up.”

After Seongwu showed no responsiveness, everything else was all instincts after that.

He made sure Seongwu was lying straight on his back before placing his hand on the captain’s chest.

All of the Marine training engrained in his body, Daniel pushed his hands down. Once. Twice. More followed after that. He made sure to carefully count in his mind, not missing a beat.

He then tilted Seongwu’s head back, carefully lifting the chin. After pinching the pirate’s nose to make sure no air came out, Daniel covered Seongwu’s open mouth with his.

Daniel blew, trying to get as much air as he could into Seongwu’s water-filled lungs, two precious seconds passing.

He then drew back and continued with pumps to Seongwu’s chest, counting again. Then he went back to breathe out into Seongwu’s mouth.

The cycle continued for a bit, Daniel getting tense and worried, when Seongwu’s body finally twitched and he began coughing violently.

Daniel quickly sat up. Seongwu rolled to his side, propping himself up on his elbow. He vomited the sea water whilst simultaneously attempting to draw in air at the same time.

The dread that Daniel felt was gone, replaced by relief. Seongwu was okay. _Seongwu was okay._

Shaky and weak, the pirate captain wiped his mouth and glanced at Daniel, gaze hazy and unsteady.

“You saved me,” he said, voice soft and barely heard. But Daniel heard. He heard it well.

 _I’m glad you’re okay,_ Daniel wanted to say. But he needed a justification for his actions. _Marines are supposed to save people. A humane person wouldn’t let someone drown just like that._ Something along the times of that.

But Daniel settled with, “Now we’re even.”

Understanding was in Seongwu’s eyes now. The captain gave a small nod.

_You saved me, and I saved you. Now we’re even._

 

Slowly but surely, they made it back to the ship.

Not only was Seongwu still shaken up from his near-death experience, but he also had a bullet wound in his left arm. Because of this, Daniel supported Seongwu as he walked, letting Seongwu lean heavily against him while keeping him propped up with one arm.

The crew was already all over the ship, setting the sails and ready with weapons in their grasps. The other party had returned, having already ran to the ship at the first sight of trouble.

Upon Seongwu’s request, Guanlin lit up a flare, watching it explode in the air. They began the final preparations while waiting for Jihoon and Woojin’s return.

Sungwoon took one glance at Seongwu and quickly rushed to him, alarmed at his pale face and bleeding arm.

The doctor had glanced in Daniel’s direction, eyes seemingly shooting out daggers, but Seongwu quickly calmed him down.

“He didn’t lure the Marines here. Daniel, he... he just saved my life.”

“Is that so?”

“Your captain was drugged,” Daniel explained. He still had Seongwu propped up against him. “He then got shot. Fell in the sea.”

“Okay.” Sungwoon held out an arm and his captain went to him. He managed to support Seongwu despite the height difference. “Let’s fix you up now. The others will get the ship out of here.”

After a quick nod, Seongwu blinked a few times, as if trying to stay awake. “Daniel...”

It was as if he had a lot to say, but couldn’t get the words through due to his condition.

“Yes?”

They locked eyes, and there it was again. A smile on Seongwu’s face— a weak one this time.

“Take care of yourself, Daniel.”

It really was like a goodbye. No... It _was_ a goodbye. Even before he disappeared below deck, Seongwu had glanced over his shoulder one last time. He even gave Daniel a little, shaky wave.

Daniel couldn’t even say anything back.

The Marines were there on the island. They could have taken him back to the headquarters— back to his normal life.

 

 

 

Daniel could have left. He _should have_ left.

But he didn’t. Yet again, he decided to stay.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

The sea was calm that night.

Just like before, the Hourglass Pirates had made their grand escape. The second that Jihoon and Woojin’s feet touched the deck, the ship sailed off. They circled around the island, finding a deserted area and deciding to dock there. It was far away from the town.

Sungwoon had tended to Seongwu’s injury, bandaging his wounded arm with care. The effects of the drugged drink, on the other hand... they could only wait for it to wear off. In the meantime, the pirate captain rested in his quarters.

 

 

 

Sometime well into the night, Seongwu woke up.

Daniel was on the seat next to the bed, lost in his thoughts. He was hit with a sense of déjà vu. They had been in this certain situation before— except their roles were reversed. This time, it was Daniel who was looking at a wounded man on the bed.

It was when Seongwu called his name that he realized that the captain was awake.

“Daniel...? You’re still here?”

Seongwu’s voice was still weak, but had a little more power compared to before. He was definitely getting better.

“I thought you’d go back to the Marines after Mocktown.”

Daniel shrugged. “I guess not.” A pause. “Yet.”

The smile that had made its way to Seongwu’s face faded at Daniel’s last word.

Before he could say anything else, Daniel spoke up first.

“Is it all worth it?”

Seongwu looked at him in confusion.

“What is?”

“All this.” Daniel gestured to all around them, around the room. But he was implying much more than that. Through the walls of the ship— even far, far beyond the ship. He was talking about the preposterous journey that the Hourglass Pirates were embarked on. “The never-ending search for the One Piece. And along with Sky Island. Is it worth all the dangers and shit you guys put yourselves into? Is it worth risking your lives?”

Seongwu was silent, his eyes unreadable. Daniel felt a raging emotion beginning to rise.

“What if the One Piece doesn’t exist? What if Gol D. Roger was just messing with all of you, sending you on a wild goose chase? What if it’s just a dying man’s last words to have people follow in his hopeless footsteps? Maybe he’s looking down at all of you, laughing at all the people he fooled.”

Daniel was being harsh. He knew that. But he needed to know the answer. He _needed_ to.

“Have you ever heard this phrase, Daniel?” Seongwu pulled on a small smile. _“It’s not about the destination. It’s about the journey.”_ He was sitting up now, leaning against the wall that touched the bed. “People may be skeptical about it. But after all this time on the sea, I can vouch that I completely agree with it.” His smile grew. “Or you could look at it this way...”

Daniel waited, heart beginning to pick up the pace.

“Remember when I told you about the places I visited?” Seongwu asked.

“Drum Island,” Daniel said. “Little Garden. Arabasta.”

Seongwu nodded, evidently pleased. “Yup. Those places and many more. In my eyes... they can be seen as mini-destinations. Sometimes they’re spontaneous destinations, such as Sky Island, but they’re destinations nonetheless.”

“Or more like detours,” Daniel muttered.

Letting out a chuckle, Seongwu gave a tiny shrug. “Like I said, it depends on how you look at it. But they’re definitely destinations for me and my crew. And wherever the One Piece is at... it’ll be the very last destination. Our finish line.”

“So you’re still looking for the One Piece.”

“That’s right.”

“Is it still important for you to find it?”

“Of course.”

“Then why risk all these detours? You might get too caught up in all these unnecessary things and someone else might get to the One Piece before you.”

Seongwu’s smile had grown warm. Daniel knew that look. It was the look of someone who was recalling fond memories, who thought of fond thoughts.

“It’s thanks to detours that I got to meet these bunch of amazing people that I now call my comrades,” Seongwu said, his voice as gentle as ever. “It all started with me and Jaehwan and our seemingly foolish dreams. We grew up in the same island and we felt that we wanted to see more of the world. So when Gol D. Roger made his grand declaration about the One Piece... we felt that it was our calling. To get out there. To explore the world and uncover its secrets.”

Daniel was silent, but he could imagine it— a much younger Seongwu and Jaehwan, staring at the sea from the safety and comfort of their island.

Seongwu continued, enthusiasm making its way into his voice. “It was just me and him on this tiny boat in the middle of the sea. Jaehwan would sing these songs on his guitar and it’d lighten the mood. It was nice. But we knew that we couldn’t survive with just the two of us. We then went to another island where our friend lived—Minhyun. We asked him to join us. We’d be _lost_ without him. He was reluctant at first, but he didn’t want to see us getting lost or anything. So he decided to join as the crew’s navigator. We went from island to island after that, to the places where not only the Log Pose would take us, but also to places which seemed interesting and fun to travel to. On these different islands and seas, I met the others— these strangers who would later become my comrades. And in the end, it feels more like a family, y’know?”

Daniel hated how he could also picture a younger Seongwu and Jaehwan on their tiny boat, hopeful and excited smiles on their faces. It was an innocent image, but Daniel was reminded of the things that were to happen afterwards.

 “You’ve caused quite a bit of trouble at those ‘mini destination’ of yours,” he said. “Your bounty always seems to rise after each island you visit.”

“Not always,” Seongwu countered.

“I said always _seems_ to rise.”

“Ah. Give me one example and I’ll tell you the story behind it.”

Daniel let out an incredulous laugh. “Oh, there’s a lot. Islands where you caused so much chaos— even toppling down the leaders of those islands. Even getting in the way of the Marines’ work.”

“Corrupt leaders,” Seongwu said. “Tyrant leaders.”

“What?”

“Those islands that we ‘caused chaos’ in. Those were islands who suffered underneath the power of corrupt and tyrant leaders. We met with the people living on the island. We saw their suffering. So we did what we had to.” Seongwu’s face was serious now. “We saved them.”

“But the reports from the Marines... the newspaper articles...”

“Of course you would believe in them,” Seongwu said with a sigh.

“What are you trying to say?”

“Do you actually think that newspapers tell the truth? That the Marines are completely honest in writing their reports? Daniel, they write what they want. And they wouldn’t want to write about how pirates saved an island, or how some corrupted Marines actually supported those tyrant leaders.”

“What...?”

“Daniel.”

Their eyes were locked, and Daniel tried to remember the last time he saw Seongwu looking so serious.

“Why do you hate pirates so much?”

_What a question._

It was something engrained in him for such a long time. He never thought he would actually get the chance to vent it all out— to thrash out— to the target of his hatred itself.

“When I was young,” Daniel said, his hand unconsciously balled into a fist, “pirates raided my village. They stole things. Destroyed things. People were hurt.” The anger was boiling now. “One of the pirates even broke into my house. My mother was there. If I hadn’t gotten there in time, she could have... could have...”

He trailed off, not wanting to think of the possibilities.

Seongwu got the point. He nodded.

“That was just the start of it all. I joined the Marines so I could put a stop to those kinds of things happening,” Daniel continued. “I wanted to save the innocent people— just like the victims of my raided village. Wanted to put an end to all the crimes pirates did. News travels fast for us Marines. Every day, we’d hear about the horrible things that pirates have done...”

 _And my hatred grew and intensified,_ Daniel finished in his mind. He felt tired now. Tired, but somehow relieved to finally have it all out in the open.

“Not all pirates are bad,” Seongwu then said. “Some are bad, like the ones that raided your city. But some are good, like me and my crew... or at least we think we’re good. It’s really up to interpretation. But what’s real is that we saved people. The same goes for the Marines— Some are good. Some are bad.”

“There are no bad Marines,” Daniel hissed.

“I wish that was true. Remember what I said, Daniel. There’s corruption in the Marines, although you may not see it. Some of them turn a blind eye to crimes that the bad pirates do. Some of them conduct crimes themselves, putting the blame on others.”

“What...”

“The world isn’t black and white, Daniel,” Seongwu finished. “People will make you believe what you want. But the reality and truth is out there. My crew saved islands. The Marines framed us as causing disruption and chaos. But the islands are doing much better now. They’re much happier now.”

Daniel felt shaken up.

“Now,” Seongwu said, “it depends on what you want to believe in.”

 

 

 

Daniel knew that it was impossible to sleep that night.

The reasons for him being fully awake were many.

First, his conversation with Seongwu made him question almost everything that he thought he knew about both pirates and the Marines. His emotions were too jumbled up and he wasn’t sure how to feel.

Second, Seongwu had informed him that Minhyun’s team had managed to get ahold of enough information before they had to flee Mocktown. They had a clue— perhaps even a _lead_ — on how to get to Sky Island.

Third, Seongwu had reached underneath his bed, bringing out a familiar bag. It was Daniel’s that he thought he had lost in the storm, but Seongwu had grabbed onto it just in case it contained anything that was of importance to Daniel. He gave it to Daniel, looking him in the eye and saying ‘ _I’m not as reckless as you think. I saw what’s inside the bag. But I trust you now. This is yours.’_

And fourth, Seongwu kept the eye contact and smiled. His next words continued to echo in Daniel’s mind even until this very moment.

_“Thanks for saving me.”_

Here was Daniel now, in the guest room where he had first waken up in, holding onto the contents of the bag.

A small binocular. A Log Pose. A map that had been drenched and eventually dried up, the ink having bled all over and now resembled a huge mess.

A pistol. And a handcuff made out of sea stone.

He held onto the last two items, hands shaking.

Seongwu had seen all this. Which meant that he was well aware of Daniel’s original intentions and how serious Daniel was with it— that the Marine’s original plan was to capture the pirates.

A sea stone handcuff wasn’t just a normal handcuff. Devil Fruits users were useless if they fell into the sea— and the same could be said, to an extent, if they touched sea stone. The stone would drain their powers, making them weak.

_Ong Seongwu wouldn’t be able to use his powers._

Daniel didn’t know anymore. What he aimed for— what he wanted or what he thought he wanted.

He thought about his island—about his home. He remembered his dedication when he joined the Marines. Everything was just a giant mess in his mind.

His hands gripped tightly around the handcuffs. It was big and bulky— it would drain a Devil Fruit user easily.

Something inside him snapped. Maybe it was pent up emotions from all this time. All these years. Maybe it was just pure confusion surging through his body. But he made up his mind. He made a decision right there, and he was going to follow it.

 

 

 

There was one secret that Daniel kept.

On the night that Jisung infiltrated the Hourglass Pirates’ ship, he had given Daniel a few of his sleep darts which the latter then hid, just in case.

And Daniel used those darts right now.

He first used it on Kim Jaehwan, who was on watch duty. Jaehwan had nearly jumped when Daniel suddenly climbed the crow’s nest to him, but upon seeing that it was only Daniel, he had calmed down. He then smiled and thanked Daniel for saving his captain.

Heart heavy, Daniel took a seat next to Jaehwan. When the other man wasn’t looking, Daniel plunged the end of the dart into Jaehwan’s neck.

Daniel then left while Jaehwan fell to his side, already fast asleep.

 

 

 

The second person that Daniel used the darts on was Ong Seongwu himself. Door ajar just as he left it, Daniel sneaked into the room easily.

For a few seconds he just stared at Seongwu’s sleeping face. Besides his bruised cheek that was covered by a small bandage, he looked peaceful. Calm. Without a trouble in the world.

Maybe he was having a good dream, a small smile on his face.

Daniel crouched over him, a hand hovering over the other cheek. Up close, he could easily see the constellation on Seongwu’s face.

Then Seongwu shifted in his sleep, and he slowly opened his eyes. His voice was hoarse and slightly slurred. “Da—Daniel?”

“I’m sorry about this,” Daniel said.

“What—?”

A dart in between his fingers, Daniel’s hand made it to the back of Seongwu’s neck. He drove it into the skin there, and Seongwu’s eyes widened.

“What the hell—” Seongwu had thrashed out weakly, barely sitting up before his body tipped back again. Before his eyes fluttered shut, he gave Daniel one last glare. It was full of confusion and anger.

“I’m sorry,” the Marine said again, taking Seongwu’s hands. There was a _click_ as he handcuffed Seongwu’s wrists, the heavy weight of the sea stone easily felt. “I’m so sorry.”

 

 

 

Seongwu was a rather light person. He hung limply over Daniel’s shoulders as the latter carried him towards the deck.

“You really are too reckless,” Daniel muttered, voice so soft that no one else could have heard. “You should never have allowed me to roam around the ship. I memorized the layout too well. Hours ago, I found your little boats. Look at you now.”

The stars were his witness as he made his way to the boats that the crew had stored at one end of the deck. They were underneath a big tarp that he quickly threw back.

 

 

 

It took a while, but they were soon in the sea with their little boat. Seongwu had woken up a few minutes after they had left the ship, but the effects of the dart and handcuffs were still heavy on him.

He lay there on the hard wooden surface, forcing the words through his tired mouth.

“Daniel. Don’t do this.”

The answer came with another dart to his neck. The world darkened around him once again.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Daniel hoped that Jisung was still waiting for him at Mocktown.

He was.

The town was slightly calmer at night. Perhaps all the chaos and noise gathered while the sun was still high up in the air.

But Daniel could still hear some laughter and yelling coming from the buildings, light pouring out of the windows. He saw a couple silhouettes there, but didn’t pay much attention to it.

Jisung was at the docks, wearing a large coat that covered his Marine uniform. The moment he saw Daniel’s boat, he rushed to the edge.

The moment Daniel stepped onto the dock, Jisung pulled him into a hug. It was over Daniel’s shoulder that Jisung saw the unconscious pirate on the boat, and he pulled back with wide eyes.

“I caught him,” Daniel said. He sounded tired. Drained. “I caught him.”

 

 

 

 


	4. to you.

 

 

 

Daniel had hoped to feel a sense of fulfillment. Of satisfaction. Of achievement.

After all, he had singlehandedly captured the notorious Ong Seongwu, captain of the Hourglass Pirates. Both bounty hunters and the Marines had failed to apprehend him before. But Daniel had succeeded. He _succeeded._

People congratulated him, voicing out how Daniel had surprised them and how they were proud of him. The higher-ups were discussing how Daniel’s rank was in need of an upgrade. Finally, a promotion. Finally, the recognition. It was all that he had hoped and worked for all this time.

So why was he numb with a sense of emptiness?

A day had passed since he made it back to the Marine outpost with Jisung. There was a holding cell in the underground floor, and that was where Ong Seongwu was being kept until further orders from the higher-ups.

Daniel had been there when two of his Marine comrades dragged Seongwu’s limp form into the cell. He had watched while the handcuffs were attached to a chain that hung on the wall. The pirate captain wouldn’t be able to go anywhere.

Before the cell door closed, Seongwu fixed Daniel with one last glare.

It was the face of someone who felt betrayed and hurt. And it continued to linger in Daniel’s mind, no matter how hard he tried to forget about it.

Daniel had never asked for Seongwu’s trust. He was a Marine, after all. Seongwu was a pirate.

Not once did he ask Seongwu to put his faith in him. Not even once.

So to say that Daniel broke Seongwu’s trust when he never asked for it in the first place... That wouldn’t be fair.

...Right?

Letting out a tiny sigh, Daniel leaned against the railing of the outpost. He was on the roof, overlooking the sea, cold wind blowing at him endlessly.

The stars were out again, just like the previous nights. He tried to focus on the good things— he was getting his promotion, he would receive bigger and honorable missions. Those were happy things to think about. Not about how Ong Seongwu might be moved to Impel Down, where he would be spending the rest of his life.

 _Impel Down—_ the underwater prison for the most dangerous and wanted criminals, including pirates. It was a maximum-security stronghold in which the possibility of escape was at the utmost minimum. Every floor of the prison held their own horrors. Highly skilled guards roamed the hallways to ensure that no prison break attempt was made. Once you stepped foot in Impel Down as a prisoner, there was no going out.

So there was no way Daniel would see Seongwu again. Tomorrow would be the last time Daniel saw the pirate— in chains, on a highly-guarded ship on the way to an inescapable prison.

_Daniel should be happy._

But things were never really that simple, were they?

He let out another sigh, feeling suffocated. He didn’t even realize that Jisung was there until the older man cleared his throat.

Nearly jumping out of his skin, Daniel whirled around to see Jisung standing at the doorway to the roof.

“Have a lot on your mind?”

“Hyung...”

Jisung joined him by his side, arms on the railing too. He looked thoughtful, staring at the sea for a bit before glancing at Daniel’s troubled face.

He then dug into the pocket of his pants, withdrawing a white envelop and holding it out to Daniel. “Here. Mail came from home. Your mom sent this a few days ago and it just arrived.”

Daniel took the envelop in his hands, saw the familiar handwriting of his mother. He felt a tinge of homesickness and also an odd sense of guilt. He wondered if she would be proud of him.

“Did you tell her about everything that happened, hyung?”

“No. I knew you wouldn’t want her to be worried.”

Relieved, Daniel said, “Thank you.”

“I know you well enough, Daniel.” Jisung then turned to Daniel, his gaze serious. “And I know when you have a lot on your mind. And when you’re feeling uncertain. It’s written all over your face.”

Letting out a small laugh, Daniel nodded. “Yeah... As expected from Jisung-hyung.”

“So what’s on your mind?”

“Everything.” Not knowing where to start, Daniel just blurted out whatever popped up in his head. He didn’t need to think, didn’t need to filter his words. This was Yoon Jisung, his best friend who took care of him since they were children, the person who he could completely believe in. “I’m not sure how to feel, hyung. I’m supposed to be glad. Supposed to be proud of myself. I just captured a notorious pirate and I’m going up the ranks. I did what a noble hardworking Marine would do. I set out to sea for this purpose. So why... why the hell am I feeling so empty?”

Once he began, he couldn’t stop. Everything went gushing out all at once.

“In a way, I miss the old days. I miss the days of us back at home, in that little island, making little adventures of our own. Things were so simple back then.”

“We were just kids, Daniel.”

“Even so, those were great. Those days were fun. We were happy. We really were. That was all before...”

“Before the pirates raided the island.”

“Yes.”

“That was a real life-changing day, wasn’t it?”

“I never thought I could hate anyone so much,” Daniel mumbled. One of his hands found its way to the railing, and he gripped tightly onto it till his knuckles turned white. “But after that day, I knew that I had to get out there... had to do _something_ so others didn’t have to suffer like that. I wanted to become a Marine.”

“And I followed you,” Jisung said with a smile.

“You really didn’t have to, hyung.”

“As if I would let you roam around the wide sea all by yourself.”

The two men chuckled, and for a moment, Daniel’s heart felt a little bit lighter.

“Hyung, this might seem weird.”

“Then please do tell me.”

“I know this might sound childish. But I wish we could go back to the old days, back to that island when we were still young and dreamed about exploring the world. I miss those simple, happy days.”

“I’m going to ask you a question. But promise me you’ll answer it as truthfully as possible.”

“What is it, hyung?”

A softer wind blew. Jisung’s gaze had softened. “When you were with the Hourglass Pirates... were you happy?”

_“What?”_

“Were you?”

Speechless, Daniel couldn’t say a word. Did he mishear Jisung’s words? Was his mind processing things differently?

But no, that was what Jisung had said. And now here Daniel was left pondering, wondering, milling it all out in his mind.

_Was he happy with Ong Seongwu and his crew?_

There was no doubt that they had taken care of him— albeit all the freaky times that the crewmates glared at him when they didn’t trust him. But Seongwu would always jump to his rescue, backing him up. He had spent a considerably bizarre time with them. The days felt full— as if a million things had happened all at once.

_But was he happy?_

All those weird meals together, the lazy moments of fishing and fooling around, even fighting against a common enemy together.

_Seongwu’s warm smile as he held out a warm flame to him._

In between the doubt and confusion, perhaps _happiness_ had slipped in there somewhere without Daniel noticing. There was that possibility. He had to think of the possibility. Just even the smallest chance... he found himself wanting to grasp onto it.

It was weird. It really was. But now that he thought of the past night and days that he had spent with the pirates, the heaviness around his heart and shoulders began to loosen. Felt lighter. More and more.

“Maybe I was,” Daniel finally answered. He was surprised to find relief in his voice. “Maybe, if even by the smallest of chances, in the smallest of moments... I was happy with them.” He paused. “Even if it wasn’t happiness that I felt... there was always a lingering curiosity. Of wonder. And a sort of longing to feel what they feel. To be full of hopes and dreams, just like them. To explore the world and chase a bizarre but exciting goal, just like them.”

Jisung smiled. “Then there you go.”

“What do you mean?”

The older man just continued to smile before patting Daniel on the shoulder. He then left, the door shutting behind him.

Unopened letter still in his hand, Daniel spent the longest time there, thinking and thinking and thinking.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

_This was crazy._

Daniel was sprinting through the hallways, long legs taking large strides.

_This was fucking crazy._

Adrenaline rushed through his veins. His breath was heavy.

_Nothing would be the same after this._

He had just rounded the corner when he crashed into an invisible wall.

The impact caused him to stumble back, nearly falling. As he lost his balance, his collar was tugged up and soon his back slammed into the stone wall behind him. Yet all he saw was nothing but air in front of him.

Just when Daniel began to contemplate if he was losing his mind, Sungwoon materialized out of thin air, small hands holding onto the Marine’s collar.

“Sungwoon!” Daniel gasped.

“Shut it,” Sungwoon seethed, causing the other to gulp. “It took us forever to find this place. Now give me one reason why I shouldn’t strangle you to death right now.”

“I’m trying to save your captain.”

“Bullshit.”

Sungwoon was much smaller but he was unbelievably strong. Daniel could barely budge underneath the hold. He was about to answer when two familiar figures appeared from the same corner.

“Oh,” Minhyun said, lowering his gun.

“Traitor!” Jaehwan screamed, flinging himself at Daniel, fists all ready. Sungwoon stopped him with one hand.

Palm on Jaehwan’s chest and keeping him in place, Sungwoon shook his head. “Daniel here says he’s gonna save our captain.”

“Lies!”

“Yeah, it sounds like bullshit to me too, Jaehwan.”

Minhyun quickly shushed them all. “We’re running out of time. We need to move _now._ ”

“Please,” Daniel said, putting all the sincerity he could into that one word. “Let me help.”

“You’re literally the person who turned Seongwu in.” As he talked, Sungwoon tightened the grip on Daniel. “And now you’re _saving him?”_

Daniel attempt at prying Sungwoon’s hands away were futile. “Look, Minhyun’s right. We’re running out of time. Whatever you guys did to break in here, everyone will be aware of it soon—”

“We knocked out all the Marines on this floor,” Jaehwan quickly commented.

“Trust me, there’s more coming,” Daniel said urgently.

Seconds passed as Sungwoon tightened his hold. He then let go, turning to his friends as Daniel slid to the floor.

“He has a point,” Sungwoon then said. “We really do need to move.”

“I know you guys don’t trust me.” Daniel climbed to his feet, legs shaky. “And I don’t blame you. If I were you guys, I wouldn’t trust Kang Daniel either. But please let me help. I know the layout of this place better than anyone else. I know where everything is. Where the key is. Where the cells are.”

They were listening to him now, soaking in every little bit of information that he provided.

“Your captain might be sent to Impel Down if we don’t get him out _right now.”_

At the mention of the underwater prison, the color drained from all of the pirates’ faces. Eyes widened and fear passing by three pairs of eyes, it was clear how they felt about that certain place and the thought of their captain being trapped there forever.

“I didn’t think the captain did things bad enough to actually end up there,” Jaehwan said, voice barely a whisper. “Is there something we don’t know about the captain?”

“Shit,” Sungwoon breathed out. “That’s insane.”

Minhyun had taken a step forward. With the gun in his hands and the sharp look in his fox-like eyes, Daniel did _not_ want to get in the way of Hwang Minhyun.

“Tell us what you know, Daniel.”

Daniel almost blurted out _yes sir._ He answered Minhyun as quickly as he could.

“There’s a flight of stairs at the next corner. The cells are in the lowest floor. I’ll get the keys to the cell.”

“One of us will go with you,” Minhyun said.

Daniel understood the implications behind it. It made sense for them not to trust him that easily. He nodded. “Of course, of course.”

They could already hear footsteps and shouts heading their way.

“Let’s save him,” Daniel said, heart banging wildly against his chest. “Let’s save Ong Seongwu.”

 

 

 

Operation Let’s-Save-Seongwu went like this:

They split into two teams. Daniel and Sungwoon would get the keys while Jaehwan and Minhyun cleared a path to the cells.

The other crew members, Daniel had been told, were busy defending the ship for their escape.

It was so weird to have footsteps right behind you but not seeing anything when you glanced over your shoulder. Sungwoon’s power was definitely handy.

There were already Marines strewn all over the ground, groaning and some even knocked out. The pirates had been busy indeed.

In the meantime, he could feign surprise whenever he met a fellow Marine. He could pretend that he was just as shocked as them, that he wasn’t a part of all the mess.

And that was what he did. At the seventh Marine that he fooled, Daniel felt like patting himself in the back. Maybe he could be an actor one day.

They made it to the first floor, to the room where the keys were kept, to the room where a high-ranked officer waited. There were papers and a large map taped to the wall. It was the place to strategize, to announce missions.

Not the best place for a fight, but that would undoubtedly happen anyways.

Things really didn’t work out smoothly in Kang Daniel’s life. He was starting to get used to it.

“Sir,” Daniel said, as innocently as possible. He could feel Sungwoon right beside him. “Could I please have the keys to the prisoner’s cell? I was told to secure more cuffs to the prisoner, to ensure that he doesn’t escape.”

The officer eyed him, hands drumming on the table. “Oh, Daniel,” he said, voice quiet and sharp. “You would have made a fine Marine.”

“Sir?”

“Such a shame.” The officer whipped out a pistol, aiming straight at Daniel—

_Bang!_

Gun flying out of the officer’s hand, he let out a curse. “Oh, so you brought Ha Sungwoon with you too?”

A thin line of smoke hung in midair, coming out of Sungwoon’s own invisible pistol. He had precise aim, shooting the gun out of the officer’s hand just a split second after it appeared.

“Oh, he recognizes me,” Sungwoon muttered with a chuckle. “Wow, I guess I’m pretty popular.”

“We don’t have to fight, sir,” Daniel said, raising his hands, showing his empty palms. “We just need the keys.”

The officer was already massaging his fists, examining the bit where the bullet had slightly grazed his hand. “What did they do to you, Daniel? Did they brainwash you?”

“No,” Daniel said. “They just opened my eyes, sir.”

 

 

 

The path of destruction was incredible.

It wasn’t just knocked out Marines, but also bullet holes in the walls, overturned objects, and obvious signs that a fight had taken place.

Even if Daniel didn’t know the way to the holding cells, all they had to do was follow that path.

Minhyun was trying to pick the lock when Daniel and Sungwoon barged into the room.

“Took you long enough,” Jaehwan muttered.

“Sorry,” Daniel said, rushing forwards with the keys. “Got caught up in something.”

“Daniel kicked his officer’s ass,” Sungwoon said, making himself visible.

Jaehwan gasped. “Did he really?”

“Never thought something like that would happen.” Daniel’s words came out in short gasps— he was still out of breath. Finally unlocking the door, he let it swing open. “But it did.”

Sungwoon was gushing out, “It was epic! The officer was like—” He launched into a lame but interesting impersonation of the burly man. “’ _Oh, Daniel. You fight like a weakling now.’_ And then Daniel was like—” He lowered his voice, as deep as possible. “— _‘no, sir. I fight like a pirate.’_ And then boom! Finishing blow! _”_

“Daaaaamn!” Jaehwan hollered.

Over the noise, Minhyun calmly reported to Daniel. “The captain’s not conscious yet.”

“They must’ve given him a large dose,” Daniel examined, working on unlocking the handcuffs. Clanking sounds followed as they fell to the ground along with the chains. “He’s asleep. But he’ll be okay.”

No longer bound to the wall, Seongwu slumped over, head falling onto Daniel’s shoulder.

Daniel was ready to carry the captain like before, but said captain shifted a little. It was slightly ticklish— Seongwu’s hair brushing against Daniel’s neck. Then mumbled words were heard, quiet enough for only Daniel to hear.

“Maybe if you gave me a kiss, I’d wake up sooner.”

“You little shit,” Daniel laughed.

Seongwu still sounded tired and weak. But he lifted his head, and Daniel looked so relieved to see his face.

“Got a little strength back after you got rid of those goddamn handcuffs. It hurt, by the way. And it’s not just physical pain I’m talking about.”

“I’m sorry,” Daniel said. _Okay, just a plain sorry wasn’t going to cut it_. Maybe even a thousand apologies wouldn’t be enough. But he would have time to apologize over and over again. He would have all the time in the world.

Right now they had to focus on escaping and _only_ escaping.

As if Seongwu had read his mind, the captain gave him a smile. “Come on, Daniel. Let’s get the hell out of here.” He then paused, and there was a slight hesitance in his voice. But he plunged forwards. “You _are_ coming with us... right?”

With a grin, Daniel nodded. “Definitely.”

A loud cough came from behind them.

“We’re still here,” Jaehwan piped in.

“Right.” Daniel drew back, not missing the brightest smile that appeared on Seongwu’s face. “You heard the captain’s orders. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

 

 

 

Their escape from the Marine outpost was explosive.

 _Literally_ explosive.

There was a lot of gunpowder stored in crates all around the outpost. Combined with Seongwu and his ability to throw fire...

It was very _very_ explosive.

Seongwu had gained enough strength to stand on his own two feet and fight. Even so, Daniel made sure to keep an eye on him just in case.

The pirates rushed out of the building, and Daniel was relieved to see the rest of the crew there on the ship, fighting off a couple Marines.

The Marines also had a couple of ships docked. Guanlin had told them, over the yelling and fighting, that the sails of those ships were all torn up, some of them even mysteriously missing.

Daniel had burst out laughing. “Jisung-hyung,” he wheezed out between breaths, wondering where his friend was. “Jisung-hyung is the best.”

Now that they were a full team, it was easier to chase the Marines off the Hourglass Pirates’ ship. Everything went so fast and the reality that he was possibly leaving Jisung forever had dawned on him, dreading that he couldn’t even say goodbye before leaving.

But thankfully, goodbyes weren’t needed. Because Jisung had appeared from one of the broken ships, a sword in his hand. After he hopped off the ship, Daniel tackled him into a hug.

“Hyung! Thank god I got to see you before I left.”

“Hey, I’m leaving with you.”

“What?” Daniel pulled back, staring at his friend. “But, hyung— your position here... your career—”

Jisung shook his head. “I set out to the sea with you, because of you, and _for_ you. I have to make sure little Daniel is safe and sound.” He then smiled. “You’re chasing happiness, and so am I.”

“I always talked badly about pirates,” Daniel said. “I always thought they were ridiculous. I called them daydreamers and helpless wanderers...”

“Well...” Jisung hummed. “Looks like we’re becoming daydreamers and helpless wanderers. And you know what? It doesn’t sound all that bad. Sounds lovely, actually.”

The world seemed so much brighter. Or maybe that was because the outpost was on fire. But Daniel could feel tears form in the corners of his eyes (or maybe that was because there was smoke in the air), and he nodded.

“Thank you, hyung. I’ll introduce you to the captain.”

“Good plan.”

“Let’s get to the ship.”

They ran, hand in hand, like they did when they were little kids. Except this time they were slightly bleeding from the fights, each holding onto a weapon in their free hand, yet the smiles on their faces carried the same youth as they did before.

Seongwu was making another wall of flame around the ship, when a Marine snuck up behind him with a blade in the air.

Daniel yelled, “Seongwu, watch out!”

The pirate captain whirled around, saw the Marine, and sent him flying with one hit.

“Damnit!” Daniel yelled, voice heard over the roaring flame. “Be careful!”

Seongwu yelled back happily, “You called me by my name! For the very first time!”

“I approve of you two,” Jisung chuckled.

 

 

 

At the end of the long night, the pirates— along with the addition of two new crewmates— escaped.

They escaped together, all eleven of them, to the sea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

> _My dearest Daniel,_
> 
> _I hope you are doing well and know that I miss you very much. You know how moms can be. They worry about their sons all the time, but imagining my own son all the way across the sea like this... it makes me all the more worried!_
> 
> _My precious son... This time I won’t just tell you about how the cats at home are doing, or about how much I miss you. This time I’ll tell you something that will most probably shock you, so please sit down before reading the rest of this letter._
> 
> _For years I’ve been having an internal fight with myself— about whether I should or should not tell you this. I was so afraid, Daniel. But in the end, the victor of that fight is the truth. So here is the truth._
> 
> _Do you remember when our town was raided by pirates? All those years ago?_
> 
> _And, Daniel... Remember the pirate that entered our house?_
> 
> _That was your father._

 

Daniel bent over, eyes wide in surprise, staring at the letter in his hands.

Two days have passed since their escape from the Marine outpost. They were free now, on the wide, wide sea. They had spent the previous days sleeping and succumbing to fatigue, but now they were all up and energized, and Daniel took the opportunity to finally read his mother’s letter.

The sea was calm, the sun was blazing, and Daniel was having a mental breakdown while seated at the crow’s nest.

There was a familiar hand on his shoulder. And a familiar, warm voice.

“Daniel, what’s wrong? You okay?”

“I’m fine, captain.”

A familiar chuckle followed. “Wow, that’s gonna take some getting used to. You could just call me by my name, you know.”

“I know, Seongwu. I know.”

“I’m a considerate person so I won’t attempt to read the contents of the letter. That would be a breach of privacy. Not to mention extremely rude. So I’m still gonna keep my eyes closed.”

Daniel grinned at the man who sat beside him, whose eyes were indeed shut tight. He then turned back to the letter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

> _You must be really shocked._
> 
> _Hmm, where to begin... It’s a very very long story._
> 
> _Years and years and years ago, a pirate ship arrived at the docks of our little island. The crew was wounded after a big fight with a rival pirate group, and their ship was in ruins. Injured and shipwrecked, they asked the townspeople if they could stay for a bit— just enough time for them to heal and get a new ship._
> 
> _It took an entire month. And in that month, I met and got to know your father. To make a long story short, we loved each other._
> 
> _After the pirates healed from their injuries and they got a new ship, they were ready to leave. But your father... he wanted to stay._
> 
> _So he left the life of a pirate. He stayed on the island with me, and years later you were born, Daniel._
> 
> _We had a good life. A really good life. You don’t remember him because you were so young, but he did care for you and loved you a lot._
> 
> _But one day your father received news that his crewmates... (or ex-crewmates...?) The thing was, they were in big danger. And he had to go to them. I understood. So I let him go._
> 
> _Honestly... even if his crew wasn’t in danger, I had a feeling that he would have left anyways. It was as if the sea called to him. He would always have this lingering look in his eyes as he stared at the sea._
> 
> _Of course, he returned on the day that our island was raided by pirates. He wasn’t part of that group of pirates, and he actually helped the townspeople fight them off. But before that, during the raid, he went to see me. All by himself, without his crewmates._
> 
> _Your father and I... we both knew that things couldn’t be the same. How we felt couldn’t be the same. He left again (after you chased him out haha). But don’t worry. He had no intention of hurting me or you._
> 
> _How you react to this, Daniel, is up to you. How you want to view your father is up to you._
> 
> _But your father... He was quite a powerful pirate. Not as powerful as Gol D. Roger, but powerful nonetheless! I think someone in the Marines knows of this, someone whose rank is higher than Jisung’s! They have access to a lot of information. Your father being an infamous pirate is why the Marines never let you rise in the ranks. I’m sure of this! Because they’re afraid of the power and capabilities you may have._
> 
> _In other words, there’s a high possibility that you’ll remain stagnant in the Marines. Where you choose to stay or leave, it’s up to you._
> 
> _Don’t worry about me. I’m happy where I am. You know that the townspeople are nice and we take care of each other all the time._
> 
> _All I want is for you to live your life happily, son. That’s all I want._
> 
> _With all the love in the world,_
> 
> _Mom_

“Okay, I’m done,” Daniel said, folding the letter and hugging it to his chest.

Seongwu opened his eyes. “How was it?”

“I’m trying to process all the information... But I think I’ll manage. By the way...”

“Hm?”

“When you first asked me to join your crew... Was that a spontaneous thing or was there a special reason?”

Leaning back against the wall of the crow’s nest, Seongwu looked thoughtful. “I thought you were a very interesting person. I wanted to get to know you more.”

“...Is that it?”

“And I had a good vibe about you. I just felt it. And as more time passed, I knew I couldn’t let you go that easily. And thankfully, my feeling was all correct.”

“Wait... Am I still an interesting person now?”

That earned him a chuckle. “Of course, Daniel. Of course.”

Although Daniel’s mind was still running all over the place, the smile on his face grew. He then stood up, looking at the view below.

The younger crewmates had taken a liking to Jisung extremely quickly. He was playful with them and doted on them. They showered him with love and affection in return.

And right now, there Jisung was, laying on the grassy part of the deck with a pillow underneath his head, Daehwi curled up right beside him.

The other kids were running around, apparently talking excitedly about something. Minhyun was looking at a map with Woojin, and the latter was blabbering about Sky Island and how excited he was to go there.  

The soft melody of a guitar drifted all the way up to the crow’s nest. Jaehwan was fiddling with his guitar.

Beside Daniel, Seongwu stood up, their shoulders brushing against each other.

Daniel closed his eyes, just soaking in the moment. The noise, the wind blowing through his hair, and the warm and fuzzy feeling in his chest that he wanted to hold onto.

He looked forward to whatever was coming next— to the mini-destinations and even the very last destination somewhere out there.

_Everything really worked out in the end._

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

 

Daniel loved the sea.

He loved how vast it was, bringing along countless adventures in this big and mysterious world.

He loved the weather that accompanied the sea, whether it be sunny or stormy, he loved it. After all, it was thanks to the stormy weather that he ended up here in the first place.

And he loved the pirates that he met on the sea.

Especially the pirate with the constellation on his cheek and the bright, warm smile.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, please do tell me what you think ❤
> 
>  
> 
> I’m sorry if some parts are messy or feels rushed :”) honestly, the story ended up quite differently (and a lot longer lol) from what I had in mind, but I hope it was still enjoyable.
> 
>  
> 
> (and me being a huge fan of One Piece, I’m afraid if I didn’t do the world justice asdfghjkl)
> 
>  
> 
> To my dear prompter, thank you so much for the prompt! It was fun and interesting to put two things that I love together— Wanna One and One Piece ❤ I had so much fun writing this and I hope it wasn’t disappointing.
> 
> To the dear readers, thanks for reading till the end. You guys rock :D
> 
> And thank you to the dear Gapyeong Lovers mods who worked hard on this fic fest! 
> 
>  
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>  
> 
>    
> ___
> 
>  
> 
> [EDIT] the authors are revealed, so now you can find me on twitter! :) [@myday_blackrose](https://twitter.com/myday_blackrose)  
>  
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>  
> 
> Also, there's gonna be a bonus chapter! :)  
>  
> 
> ___  
>    
>    
>  __  
> December will come to an end and we know what that means. But I would like to imagine that the Hourglass Pirates will always be together, on that sea, on their grand adventure— just sailing off into the great unknown.


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